A uniquely British holiday, Guy Fawkes Day (also known as Guy Fawkes Night, Bonfire Night and Fireworks Night) is officially a thanksgiving celebration for a failed assassination attempt on King James I in 1605. The Observance of 5th November Act enacted at the time made this day an annual public holiday during which bonfires are lit and fireworks exploded.

Guy Fawkes was a member of the Gunpowder Plot, as the assassination attempt is known, arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords, thrown into prison and later executed. Effigies of the notorious traitor have been burned in bonfires, but recently masks portraying his face have come to symbolize resistance to fascist government.