Guy Fawkes

Fawkes burns in effigy on the pyre behind us.

Charlotte drives the pink princess car at the fair.

For three days we have heard the boom and sizzle of fireworks outside our home, the warm-up to Guy Fawkes day, which is celebrated on Nov. 5 and inspires the otherwise subdued Brits to go forth and light bonfires and set off pyrotechnics. They are celebrating (as Harry explained to me at breakfast), "Guy Fawkes, who tried to bomb the King."  It's actually not a bad approximation of the truth.

Andrea and Harry drive duo.

On Nov 5, 1605, Fawkes and his co-conspirators planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the thrown.  Fawkes placed a store of gunpowder beneath the House of Lords. An anonymous letter was his downfall and the plot dismantled. Fawkes became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot. His effigy is often burned on a bonfire, accompanied by fireworks.

After enjoying the family fair on Midsummer Common, joined by our friends Mila and Eduardo and their daughter Andrea, we gathered at 7: 30 p.m. for an amazing fireworks show (so BIG, so bright, so incredible to be standing nearly beneath it). After the last firecracker popped, organizers lit a HUGE pyre. Our first Guy Fawkes experience.