BONFIRE NIGHT

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British people celebrate Bonfire Night every year on 5 November in memory of a famous event in British history, the Gunpowder Plot. On 5 November 1605 a group of Roman Catholics planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament while King James I was inside. One day before, one of them, Guy Fawkes, was caught in the cellars with gunpowder and the plot was discovered. He and all the other conspirators were put to death. 

 

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Bonfire Night is sometimes called Guy Fawkes Night.

Originally, Bonfire Night was celebrated as a victory for Protestants over Catholics, but the festival is now enjoyed by everyone. Some children make a guy, a figure of a man made of old clothes stuffed with newspapers or straw to represent Guy Fawkes. The guy is then burned on top of a bonfire on Bonfire Night. A few weeks before, children take their guy into the street and ask for a “penny for the guy”. They use the money to buy fireworks.

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 The events of 5 November 1605 are celebrated in a nursery rhyme:

Please to remember,

The fifth of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot;

I know no reason

Why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Source: Oxford Guide to British and American Culture by Oxford University Press

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Dictionary:

to celebrate - świętować

in memory of sb - ku pamięci (kogoś)

blow up – wysadzać ( w powietrze )

gunpowder – proch

plot – spisek

bonfire – ognisko

fireworks - fajerwerki

                                                                      Katarzyna Bilska-Baran