November 5th is Guy Fawkes day in England; the anniversary of the day in 1605 when a band of men, including one named Guy Fawkes, tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Luckily for that building, and for the English government, he was stopped before he could do the deed. Bonfires were lit in London that night to celebrate the foiling of the plot.
Courtesy of Geoff Charles Collection, National Library of Wales
When my mother was a girl, boys in her village would make a “guy”–a scarecrow-like figure made of old clothes and stuffed with hay, and wheel him about, asking passersby for a “penny for the guy.” They would use the money to buy fireworks. There were always massive bonfires on Guy Fawkes day, in which garden rubbish would be burnt, with the Guy on top. A well-known rhyme went, “Please to remember the Fifth of November/Gunpowder, treason and plot/I see no reason why gunpowder, treason/Should ever be forgot.”
On my Uncle Frank’s farm, two years ago during my Year of Living Englishly, there were the usual plans to have a bonfire, but no one seemed particularly energetic about making a guy, so this job fell to me.
I went around looking for old clothes to be donated to the funeral pyre of the guy, and was given an outgrown pair of trousers and a top. I spent a good hour sewing top to bottom so the Guy wouldn’t fall apart. Uncle Frank then handed me an old jacket that had been hanging up in the barn for at least, by my reckoning, twenty years. It was covered with spiderwebs, which I tried to ignore, and had multiple moth-holes. It was, in a word, perfect.
Meg, a Halloween-costumed Melissa, and a friend help stuff the Guy in the hay barn.
The headless Guy
The Guy with his crowning glory: a pumpkin head (usually the Guy’s head is made from a piece of sacking).
The Guy’s final minutes.
At the nearby school that my younger daughter attended as a five-year-old in the “Infants’ class,” they were busy making Bonfire Toffee.
–Courtesy of kiwidutch.
Here’s the recipe:
Year 5′s Special Bonfire Toffee
Made with only the best ingredients!
12 oz sugar
4 oz best butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
3 fluid oz water
A good pinch of cream of tartar, dissolved in a little water
1. Grease a baking tray
2. Choose a large heavy based saucepan
3. Put all the ingredients in the pan together
4. When melted and starting to bubble put in the C of T dissolved in a little water
5. Once bubbling do not stir as this lowers the temperature
6. After a few minutes the mixture starts to thicken
7. When it becomes quite thick and ‘rolling’ test a little of the mixture in a glass of cold water. If it sets quickly and ‘clinks’ against the side of the glass–it is ready.
Pour into the greased baking tray. Leave it to set. When quite told turn out, smash into mouth-size pieces and enjoy!
Please note: Crich Carr Toffee Making Company takes no responsibility for any damage to teeth caused by eating our product!
To my family and friends in England, Happy Guy Fawkes Day!
The Year of Living Englishly 
In Holland and Germany the festival bringing light into the autumnal darkness is St. Martin’s Day. Femke, Dutch friend tells me that St. Martin was associated in her part of Holland (very close to the Channel coast) with pranks and turning of the tables, with children allowed/expected to play tricks on teachers, groups singing prankish songs going through the streets with lanterns and demanding handouts. Femke started a secular St. Martin’s Day in JP, the Lantern Parade around the Pond. Insead of lovely folk songs we have a live local rock band to dance to on top of the Boat House annex.
In villages in the Rhineland children make lanterns, and the volunteer fire department builds a giant bonfire. Everybody gathers in the village square after dark, and St. Martin on his (farm)horse rides ahead. There is a stop or 2 at the local pub where the children are handed hot cross buns(to put a thin Christian veneer on the proceedings.) Everyone circles the bonfire area before the fire
department lights it, lovely songs are sung about light in the darkness and about St. Martin combatting the cold and dark by sharing his cloak with a beggar.
Lovely! Thanks so much for sharing this! I’ve been to the Lantern Parade in Jamaica Pond, and have loved seeing the hundreds and hundreds of people encircling Jamaica Pond, the light from their lanterns reflected in the water.
Hope, what a lovely comment! I love hearing about the traditions of other countries. I so enjoyed the Lantern Festival that you organized this year in which several thousand people paraded in the dark with their lit lanterns around Jamaica Pond, in Boston. Magical!