Violet
1/11/21
Bonfire Night
On the 5th November every year we celebrate Bonfire Night by lighting bonfires and watching fireworks, but do you know why?
The Gunpowder Plot
Over 400 years ago there was a plot to kill the king of England by blowing up the Houses of Parliament. A man called Guy Fawkes was caught before he could set fire to barrels of gunpowder to complete the plan. You can learn more about why the plotters wanted to kill the king and how they got caught in our Gunpowder Plot section on the website. Click here to find out more.
Fireworks
Why do we remember the Gunpowder Plot with fireworks though? Lots of people even call Bonfire Night Fireworks Night instead. Fireworks explode in the night sky because inside they contain a small amount of gunpowder. They are lit before they go zooming up into the sky and then once the fire reaches the gunpowder inside they explode with lots of pretty colours. Gunpowder was what the plotters were planning to use to create a huge explosion in 1605. They were going to use a lot more gunpowder though, 36 barrels full to be exact!
Fireworks Paintings
We tried to create our own firework display. Do you like our pictures? We used cut up toilet rolls, potatoes and pipe cleaners to create firework shapes. We also added lots of glitter as fireworks are really sparkly! Could you create your own firework paintings? What could you use to create your firework shapes.
All photos and illustrations in this blog post are Whizzbots and Public Domain Images.
Other images on the site may be Creative Commons Images, which are credited appropriately.