In the United Kingdom, the fifth of November is known as Guy Fawkes Night (or Bonfire Night) to commemorate the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
The plot involved the planned assassination of the protestant King James I in an effort to restore a Catholic monarch to the English throne. Guy Fawkes, a converted Catholic Englishman who fought for Catholic Spain in the Eighty Years' War, was put in charge of a stockpile of gunpowder kept in a storage area beneath the House of Lords. An anonymous letter tipped off authorities and Fawkes was found guarding the gunpowder; after torture, he admitted to the plot to blow up the House of Lords and was charged with treason. On November 5, 1605, Londoners were encouraged to light bonfires to celebrate that the King survived the assassination attempt. On January 31, 1606, Fawkes was hanged. Guy Fawkes Night traditionally involves burning a Guy Fawkes effigy on a bonfire. Children usually make the effigies using old clothes, newspaper, and a mask.
In contemporary culture, the Guy Fawkes mask has become a symbol of anti-government and anti-establishment movements such as Occupy and Anonymous. The most notable iteration of the mask is based on David Lloyd's stylization of the Guy Fawkes mask used in V for Vendetta, which depicts a theatrical, smirking face and rosy cheeks.
