The Sussex Bonfire Societies are responsible for the series of bonfire festivals concentrated on central and eastern Sussex, with further festivals in parts of Surrey and Kent from September to November each year.
Members of the Lewes Borough Bonfire Society on Bonfire Night in Lewes, Sussex.
Members of the Cliffe Bonfire Society drag burning tar barrels through the streets of Lewes as part of their Bonfire Night celebrations.
Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Fireworks Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in Great Britain, involving bonfires and fireworks displays. Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605 O.S., when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords. The Catholic plotters had intended to assassinate Protestant king James I and his parliament. Celebrating that the king had survived, people lit bonfires around London. Months later, the Observance of 5th November Act mandated an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot's failure.
Festivities in Windsor Castle by Paul Sandby, c. 1776
An effigy of Fawkes, burnt on 5 November 2010 at Billericay
Revellers in Lewes in East Sussex, 5 November 2010
The restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in 1850 provoked a strong reaction. This sketch is from an issue of Punch, printed in November that year.
