Reflections on the puddle of life

the Fifth of November!

For me bonfire night, or Guy Fawkes Night is one of the best days in the calendar. Occurring on 5th November each year it’s the last major British festival before Christmas; a quirky event full of fond memories.

History

The origins of Guy Fawkes night date back to 1605 when King James I & VI presided over Britain. Following England’s split from the Catholic Church in 1536 under the rule of Henry VIII there had followed a time of religious upheaval, with Henry proceeded by Catholic Queen Mary, who in turn was succeeded by the Protestant Elizabeth I and James I & VI, another Protestant and the King who first united the then separate nations of England and Scotland. It had been a tough time for the Catholics in Britain, the ascendancy of Elizabeth I had quashed any chances of a successful invasion by the Catholic Spain so the maginalised Catholics were left to themselves.

In 1604 a group of disgruntled Catholics lead by Robert Catesby and including Thomas Winter, Robert Winter, John Wright, Christopher Wright, Robert Keyes, Sir Thomas Percy, Lord John Grant, Sir Ambrose Rokewood, Sir Everard Digby, Sir Francis Thresham, Guy Fawkes (also known as Guido Fawkes) and Catesby’s servant Thomas Bates came together to formulate a plot to overthrow King James and install his Catholic daughter as Queen. In order to achieve this they planned to blow up Parliament using gunpowder which they’d accumulated in a cellar directly beneath the House of Lords.

Here is Guy Fawkes


As the day of the proposed plot drew closer, a number of the conspirators became concerned about their fellow Catholics who would be present at the House of Lords on the night of the proposed bombing. One of the Catholic Lords, Lord Monteagle received a letter warning him to stay away from Parliament. Lord Monteagle handed the letter over to the Secretary of State, and the plot was exposed.

In order to catch the conspirators the King allowed the conspiracy to go ahead. On the night of November 5th 1605 Guy Fawkes was caught in the cellars beneath the House of Lords as he was about to set the gunpowder alight.

Fawkes was arrested and tortured, revealing the identities of his co-conspirators. The conspirators were tried and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, a particularly brutal form of execution in which involved the condemned being hanged until almost dead, cut down from the gallows where they would then be disembowelled and emasculated with the entrails and genitalia burned in front of them, and finally their body would be cut into four quarters and beheaded (yikes!). Fawkes escaped the full extent of his penalty by cheating the hangman and jumping from the gallows, breaking his own neck.

An Act of Parliament was passed by King James in which 5th November was designated a day of thanksgiving to celebrate the King’s deliverance from the plotters, and it is still celebrated to this day.

Various traditions have arisen around Guy Fawkes night, and these tend to vary regionally. A common element, from my childhood anyway, was the tradition of penny for the Guy, where children would create an effigy of Guy which would be paraded round the streets on a wheelbarrow and people would be asked to donate money which would then be used to buy fireworks. The Guy would later be burned on the bonfire.

These days no one seems to make Guy’s anymore, which I find kind of sad. Other types of effigy have been burned in recent times including Tony Blair, George W Bush, Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

And what would a festival be without a theme tune? Various songs have come and gone through the years, but this one is the most well known:

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
Remember, remember, the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot!
A stick or a stake for King James' sake
Will you please to give us a fagot
If you can't give us one, we'll take two;
The better for us and the worse for you!

The recent movie V for Vendetta reinvigorated the Guy Fawkes story with the main character V donning a Guy Fawkes mask and a stunning opening sequence in which V completes the task at which Guy failed so may years ago. If you haven’t seen it, V for Vendetta is an excellent movie (not just for the Guy Fawkes references!)

I have so many excellent memories of Guy Fawkes night!

Food was a really big tradition where I grew up, though I’m beginning to realise that this is very much a Northern English thing. For me Bonfire Night is associated with two things:
- potatoes, and
- treacle

Mmm, treacle

Once it was dark and the bonfire was lit potatoes would be placed around and just inside the fire; a couple of hours later, lovely crispy, blackened baked potato.

Mum would make a potato pie (actually meat and potato – baked in a big casserole dish with a thick top-crust) which would get dished out onto plates and eaten outside, served with pickled red cabbage and beetroot.

Then the treacle. Treacle was served in several forms on Bonfire Night: treacle toffee and bonfire toffee (which is like treacle toffee but hard like rock as opposed to chewy) were my favourites, along with Parkin cake. Parkin cake is a treacly gingery cake which is best eaten several days after baking. Recipe follows:

1/2 level tsp (2.5 ml) Bicarbonate of soda (Baking soda)
1 1/4 cup (1/2 pint) 300 ml milk
8 oz (225 g) treacle (molasses)
8 oz (225 g) golden syrup (substitute light corn syrup)
1 stick (8 Tbsp)4 oz (100 g) butter
4 1/2 cups (450 g) 1 lb plain flour (All purpose)
350 g (12 oz) medium oatmeal
1 level tsp (5 ml) salt
1/4 cup (50 g) 2 oz sugar
1 level tsp (5 ml) ground ginger
1 egg, beaten



method
1. Butter a 23 cm (9 inch) square cake tin.

2. Dissolve the soda in the milk. Melt the treacle, syrup and butter together.

3. Mix all the dry ingredients together, pour in the melted butter mixture, stir well, add the egg and milk; stir well. Turn into the prepared tin.

4. Bake in the oven at 180c (350°F) mark 4 for 45 minutes. Turn out of the tin when cold. Store in an airtight container for at least one week before eating.

I’ve made mine today and it smells delicious

The weekend before and the weekend after 5th November are always busy with bonfires and fireworks displays. In these days of health and safety and concerns about global warming there are fewer and fewer home bonfires, and more organised displays. But I remember helping my school build their bonfire every year and watching the colours and vibrant lights of the fireworks through my bedroom window. We lived on the hillside of a wide valley so we had an excellent view, and it used to seem like the whole world was alight with flashing lights, bangs, vivid colours! I used to get so excited when my Grandma arrived as she always brought bonfire toffee which came in a silver tray with a little hammer so you could smash it to pieces. I loved digging out all those vicious, tasty shards, finding bits days later in my bed (and still eating them!).

Somehow Guy Fawkes night doesn’t seem so colourful now. Bonfires are almost non-existent, and organised displays are the way to go. This year, with people feeling the pinch, there doesn’t seem much money for frivolities like fireworks so the likelihood is that the night will pass with a whimper. But we will be eating Parkin cake and watching what we can see out of the windows, and there will be sparklers for the children, and maybe a few fountains and a Catherine wheel. Nothing too noisy, they’re not used to it.

If you’d like test your knowledge of the Gunpowder Plot try this out:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british...der_plot.shtml

And if you're going to a display or having one at home remember, be safe!