November 5 – Guy Fawkes Night, Celebrated Throughout The Commonwealth Except Australia
Yeah but who’s Guy Fawkes anyway?
What..? Not another chapter left out of the Australian History syllabus. – Guy and a few mates tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament (and in particular the House of Lords) in London UK, back in 1605. The plot failed, Guy got caught, convicted of treason and summarily executed.
Ever since then, the English (and in later years the British and nowadays all its colonies) have celebrated the failed plot by burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes and letting off heaps of fireworks on the 5th November each year. This gave rise to its more colloquial names of ‘Bonfire Night‘ or ‘Fireworks Night‘.
Enter the Nanny State… Australia.