Remember, Remember the 5th of November, as the poem goes and as the people of the United Kingdom have done since the year 1606 in commemoration of the fact that the year before a certain Guy Fawkes was caught in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament along with dozens of barrels of gunpowder in an attempted plot to kill the entire Government.
He was caught, subsequently tried and given the most harsh of punishment available at the time, Hung, Drawn and Quartered, a penalty used since the year 1351 as punishment for high treason. This involved the victim or rather the accused of being hung to the point of death, emasculated (Castrated), disembowelled and their body cut into four pieces. Then their body pieces displayed around the city as a warning to others. It was common for them to place the head of the dead on a spear on London Bridge. No wonder the plague killed 20% of the city between 1665 and 1666.
The Guy Fawkes Celebration, also known as Bonfire night is traditionally celebrated with Fireworks and historically a Bonfire. Children would create their own Guy, made out of old clothes stuffed with News Papers and Guy would be placed on the Bon Fire to burn.
Apparently the London Clear Air Act prohibits Bonfires now, so unlike when I was younger and the public Firework displays also hosted a huge 50 foot fire, it is just a firework display.
For several years now my dear friends Richard & Mark (The Leather Queens), have hosted a small Firework party for close friends and we all gathered outside in their garden to watch the Rockets & Catherine Wheels. The wind was blowing the wrong direction and we all got covered in smoke and enjoyed a couple of sparklers and a few glasses of tipple in very good company.
Years gone by you would have heard the noise of fireworks for weeks before and after November the 5th but I guess it’s a sign of the times as aside from the weekend before I Have heard no fireworks before or since. Who can afford them to start with prices rocketing as they have been.
Thanks to the Leather Queens once again for their hospitality and a lovely Guy Fawkes as always.
