Guy Fawkes and the 'Gunpowder Plot' |
 Guy Fawkes, (b. 1570, in York)
was a member of a prominent Yorkshire family who had converted to Roman
Catholicism. He became soldier and was the best-known member of the Gunpowder
Plot. Its object was to blow up the Parliament building, while James I (James
VI of Scotland) and his chief ministers met within, in reprisal for increasing
oppression of Roman Catholics in England.
The plot was discovered and Fawkes was arrested on 4th November 1605. Only after being tortured on the rack did he reveal the names of his accomplices. He was tried and found guilty before a special commission on 27th January 1606 and executed on 31st January of the same year. Guy Fawkes day is celebrated throughout the UK on 5th November every year. The celebration includes fireworks and the burning of 'bonfires' on which are placed effigies of the conspirator. This is preceded by Halloween, derived from "All Hallows' Eve", or "evening", a holy or hallowed evening observed on October 31, the eve of All Saints' Day. This was heavily influenced by the earlier Celtic festival of 'Samhain', observed on 31st October as the end of summer. In both Celtic and Anglo-Saxon times this date was also the eve of the new year, when huge bonfires were set on hilltops to frighten away evil spirits. At this time herds were usually being brought in from pasture for the winter and land tenure was being renewed for the coming year. It was also believed that the souls of the dead revisited their homes on this day, so that this autumnal festival acquired sinister overtones involving ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, black cats, fairies, and demons of all kinds who were thought to be about in the area. Gradually, after the events of the Gunpowder Plot, these different strands metamorphosed into a secular festival in which children would go round their neighbourhood asking for "a penny for the Guy" and often being given sweets or fruit as well, usually preceded by the groups of children performing little "acts" or singing various songs. This was the way it was done in my childhood, at any rate. At home, and at childrens' clubs I used to go to, we also had to perform the ritual of "ducking" for apples - a dozen or so apples would be floating in a large basin, or a tin bath, of water and you had to hold your hands behind your back and attempt to pick up an apple with your teeth - without falling into the water! The reward would be some sweets and fruit, although not usually money. Since then, it has become quite commercialised and has adopted some of the "Trick or Treat" aspects of the Halloween festival as celebrated in the United States when children who do not get a response or money at homes they visit play tricks on the residents, although it is generally reasonably good-natured. This itself developed from the rather more rowdy earlier custom of some immigrants to the US, mainly Irish, of using this evening to go round communities causing mischief, sometimes severe. |
