By Yirugui
On November 5, 2019, students from the 2019-2020 short term programme of BIGC arrived at an event to commemorate Guy Fawkes Night in Stirling after class.
Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night, is an important festival for Britain and is observed on November 5 every year. The observations started because a religious persecution scheme in 1605 against King James I. A man named Guy Fawkes, with a group of extreme Catholics, came up with a “gunpowder plan” and smuggled 36 barrels of black gunpowder into the basement adjacent to the House of Parliament in secret. Their intention was to detonate the gunpowder when the King held a meeting on November 5, therefore blowing up the Houses of Parliament, killing the King and his deputies. But the information became known to the King, on the early morning of November 5. The King’s guards raided the basement and found a large amount of gunpowder stored, after which Guy Fawkes was captured, and the plot failed. This shocked the entire nation. Since then, the UK has celebrated the shattering of the terror plot by burning portraits of Guy Fawkes and lighting fireworks on November 5th every year.
Nowadays Guy Fawkes Night has become a great opportunity for those around Britain to enjoy bonfires and watch fireworks. On this day, people use old clothes to fill up a dummy, Guy, then burn it on a bonfire and at the end they set off beautiful fireworks. On the night of this year’s Guy Fawkes in Stirling, the Cabeytu Brothers played a variety of instruments, pop music and also traditional Scottish music. The Scots around us were dancing the Ceilidh dance. In the other direction was the bonfire burning the dummy Guy and people trying to form a large circle to admire the bonfire.
When the beautiful fireworks shining in the sky of Stirling accompanied the background music, friends hugged each other, and the event came to its climax. This was an unforgettable night which still commemorated the triumph of life over destruction even 414 years after November 5, 1605.
