Safety on Guy Fawkes' night

What we now see as a celebration of color and flames actually has its roots deep in the history of the UK - and the facts are often forgotten amid the celebrations.

Way back on 5th November 1605, Guy Fawkes was a part of a gang of Catholics called the Gun Powder Plot. Their aim was to blow up the House of Lords with King James I inside because they wanted a catholic king. Guy Fawkes was caught gaurding the gunpowder and arrested. The people of England were permitted to celebrate the fact that the king had survived an attempt on his life by having bonfires - as long as they weren't dangerous or disorderly, so it's safe to say that getting drunk was pretty much off the cards and you had to choose the site of your fire carefully.

The strange thing is that we didn't actually start to burn the Guy until the 18th century and the reasons why we decided to suddenly start doing this are unclear.

November 5th 1790 added it's own twist and a different direction to things though, with a major national newspaper reporting that children were "begging for money for Guy Faux" - now it wouldn't take long for the adults to spot this and thus jump on the bandwaggon, so to speak. And the same newspaper ran a report on the 4th November 1802 about a group of "Idle layabouts" together with some horrid figure dressed up as a Guy Faux went out begging for money. The men were convicted of begging and receiving money and sent to prison as idle and disorderly persons

The Guy is real easy to make - all you need is an old shirt, an old pair of trousers, an old pillow case and plenty of old newspaper. Sew the sleeves and legs up - if you have young children, you might like to sew the shirt to the trousers as well, just to make it easier to put Guy together later.

Now that you have sewn Guy's body together, get your child/ren to stuff him with the newspaper. Be careful as they get close to Guy's shoulders though because you still need room to stuff his head and put it onto his sholders.

Now that Guy is stuffed, his head (aka the pillowcase) needs a face on it so give everyone some pens and draw Guy's face. When everyone is happy with Guy's face, stuff the pillowcase 3/4 of the way full and fold it closed if you can to prevent his stuffing from falling out. Now stuff the pillowcase into the neck of the shirt so that Guy's head sits the right way up on his sholders and he is finished.

If you plan on taking Guy out to ask for pennies, you'll need something to transport him on or in because he gets heavy after a while of carrying him - a sack barrow or wheelchair/wheelbarrow are fine. If you use a sack barrow, you'll want some bungee cords to secure him to tha barrow - [b]and, whatever you do, be sure you don't leave him alone... you don't want anyone reporting him as a body to the cops!!![/b]

Just before the fire is lit, it is common to place the Guy on top of the fire, then light it (both the fire and the Guy) and leave to burn. Some people have been known to throw the Guy on afterwards, but this is dangerous because it could create a backdraft - that's why I advise that the Guy is placed on the fire before lighting.