Remember, remember...

Until Hallowe'en arrived as a proper full blown night out in the UK a decade or so ago, November 5th was the big, glitzy firework filled evening of the year.  And all because of a man who wanted to kill a king.

 

The Gunpowder plotters who were discovered on this night in 1605 just before they planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London

 

The fireworks, bonfires and toffee apples mark a truly gruesome event in British history as a group of Catholic plotters tried to get rid of the Protestant monarchy by blowing it up. Guy Fawkes was the man who looked after the gunpowder and so the first to be found when a warning letter was sent ahead of the plot and the plans were discovered.  The plotters died horrible deaths, the Protestant monarchy in the form of James I survived and the people in England who feared Catholicism gaining power began to burn images of Guy Fawkes on the anniversary of the discovery of the plot.  In time, the event became more of a late autumn festival - time lessening the horrors the plotters were planning or the traitors' deaths inflicted on many of them.  Tonight, we remember, remember, the fifth of November but mostly because it's being overshadowed by Hallowe'en.