Remember, Remember the 5th of November!

Every year on the 5th of November, we wrap up warm, gather around crackling bonfires, and watch fireworks burst into colour across the night sky. But do you know the real story behind Bonfire Night?

Over 400 years ago, in 1605, a man named Guy Fawkes was caught beneath the Houses of Parliament with barrels of gunpowder. He was part of a group of men who planned to blow up King James I and his government, a plan we now call the Gunpowder Plot.

But why would anyone want to do such a thing?

In those days, England was divided by religion. 

The plotters were Catholics, who wanted to worship freely, but the King’s government made strict laws that punished them for practising their faith. The men, led by Robert Catesby, believed that if they destroyed Parliament and the King, they could replace them with a ruler who would allow Catholics to live in peace.

Their plan, as it turned out, was doomed to failure. A mysterious letter warned one of the King’s men to stay away from Parliament, and when the guards searched the cellars, they found Guy Fawkes guarding the explosives. He was arrested, and the plot was stopped just in time.

Parliament declared the 5th of November a National Day of Thanksgiving. Religious services were held to celebrate the safety of the King and his government. Over time people began to celebrate in their own way with the lighting of bonfires.

Did you know that from around 20 years after the failure of the Gunpowder Plot, people burned effigies of the Pope, reflecting the religious tensions of the time? As the years went on, the focus shifted. Effigies of Guy Fawkes were burned instead, symbolising his punishment and the failure of the plot.

Over the centuries, the meaning of Bonfire Night has changed again. The politics and religious divisions faded away, replaced by a celebration of light and community. People gathered to watch fireworks light up the November sky.

Today, Bonfire Night is a time for sparklers, hot chocolate, and remembering an incredible moment in history when one man’s plot changed the course of Britain forever.

“Remember, remember…” — the story of the poem

The famous rhyme

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
We see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!

It wasn’t written all at once, and it didn’t start the way we know it today.

In 1626, the poet John Milton wrote a Latin poem called “In Quintum Novembris” (“On the Fifth of November”). It celebrated the King’s deliverance from the Gunpowder Plot and thanked God for saving England. Although it wasn’t the rhyme we recite today, it helped establish the tradition of using poetry to remember the event.

Over the following centuries, short verses and ballads about the Gunpowder Plot spread across England. The earliest known versions of “Remember, remember the fifth of November” appeared in the late 1600s, passed along in broadsides and folk songs as a reminder to stay loyal to the Crown and never forget the “Popish Plot” – a reference to the Catholic conspirators.

By the 19th century, the rhyme had taken on its modern form. A version printed in Notes and Queries in 1841 included familiar lines, along with extra verses now forgotten. As Bonfire Night became more about fireworks than faith, the poem lost its political and religious tone and became a simple chant of remembrance and tradition, something for children and adults alike to recite each year beside the fire.

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