The Bonfire night.

First, the history:

The year was 1605 and some English Catholics were angry because the King of England, James the first, was treating them badly. In November 1605 a group of men made a plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament) in London.
An explosion was planned for November 5th. The plan is known as the ‘Gunpowder Plot’ and the leader of the group was called Guy Fawkes. 
The men put 36 barrels of gunpowder in the Houses of Parliament and they waited for the King to arrive. The group decided that Guy Fawkes should light the gunpowder and cause the explosion. Did they succeed? No, they didn’t. The police found the gunpowder before it exploded and they caught all the men involved in the plot. The men were tortured and killed. To celebrate his survival, King James ordered the people of England to have a bonfire on the night of November 5th.

Bonfire Night is an annual event dedicated to bonfires, fireworks and celebrations.

It is celebrated all over the UK.

Every year on 5th November, the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, Guy Fawkes is remembered.

Throughout England, towns and villages...

• light huge bonfires,
• let off magnificent fireworks,
• burn an effigy (a homemade model of a man, like a scarecrow) and
• celebrate the fact the Parliament and James I were not blown sky high by Guy Fawkes.

The traditional cake eaten on bonfire night is Parkin Cake, a sticky cake containing a mix of oatmeal, ginger, treacle and syrup.

During the days before Bonfire Night, children used to take their home-made guys out on the street and ask for "a penny for the Guy" for fireworks.

Children, in some areas, blacken their faces as Guy Fawkes might have done when he plotted to blow up parliament.