Guy Fawkes

Why do we have Guy Fawkes night?

We wondered why we celebrate Guy Fawkes Night so we investigated and found out …
Guy Fawkes was a soldier who lived a very long time ago… 1605!
He had 12 friends and none of them liked the way the King was treating them and other people who
were Catholic believers.
Guy Fawkes and his friends decided that they would blow up the parliament buildings in England
when all the government and the King were having a meeting.
One person was worried about his cousin who was going to be at the meeting. He wrote a letter to warn his cousin.
Other people saw the letter and told the King!
Guy Fawkes and most of his friends were caught and killed by the King’s soldiers.
They didn’t get to blow up Parliament.

We wondered…..what would have happened if the plan had gone ahead? Would it have worked?

We watched a YouTube clip by Richard Hammond. He had asked the same question! Richard and some friends went to a safe military base and made a life-size model of the old parliament building. They got the same amount of gunpowder that Guy Fawkes had planned to use and put it under the building. They lit the gunpowder and BOOM! the whole building exploded!

Unidentified children with rival guys, on Guy Fawkes day at Ohingaiti, circa 1900. Shows a group of children, standing by two effigies of Guy Fox in wheelbarrows. The four boys in the foreground wear suits and hats. Photograph taken by Edward George Child.
Children with rival guys, Guy Fawkes day at Ohingaiti. Child, Edward George, 1860-1949 :Photographs of the Ohingaiti district. Ref: 1/2-038752-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22585229