Dartford remember remembers
On the night of November 7th Dartford remembered the fifth of November by celebrating bonfire night. In Central Park the towns residents gathered to commemorate the occasion. The event was attended by “more people than ever” as one local family said. As well as a resplendent bonfire, the park was adorned with a multitude of rides and games to be enjoyed. This years bonfire night was described as "so good" and "tonnes of fun" by a group of teens who attended. The main event were the beguiling fire works which impressed all who saw. The night in all was “ the best yet”.
Since the 1605 bonfire night has become an increasingly popular annual event in England but it wouldn't be the same without the fireworks. However, this integral part of the celebration originated in China. The first form of fireworks were firecrackers. It is common belief that the gunpowder necessary for firecrackers and fireworks was discovered inadvertently by a cook mixing ingredients. These ingredients were: salt Peter, charcoal and sulphur. This mixture was was dried over fire and encased in hollowed out shoots of bamboo to create the first firecrackers. These were used to celebrate Chinese events as they were seen as powerful enough to ward off spirits and to create explosive arrows for warfare. This created the field of pyrotechnics which over time developed the technology to create fireworks which spread to the west. This is how gunpowder and fireworks came to England. In the thirteenth century a scholar from England names Robert bacon brought over gun powder from China. It is said that he tried to hide gunpowders destructive capacity to prevent it being used for weaponry. If not for this bonfire night may not exist today.
Bonfire night came to be as a result of the death of queen Elizabeth The first. She was known to harbour extreme prejudice towards Catholics. James the first took over after she passed, unfortunately he proved to be no better. This sparked a group of men lead by Robert Catesby to take violent action, this group would later grow to include Guy Fawkes. The group eventually decided that they would act by blowing up the Houses of Parliament. The man tasked with placing the barrels of gun powder was a man whose name rings with perpetual infamy, Guy Fawkes. He was caught by the king allegedly because a comrade warned a friend to avoid the Houses of Parliament and this message was intercepted , though this is speculated to be false. Guy was caught and killed for his actions as well as other member of the group. It is in memory of this historic event that people began to light bonfires on the fifth of November as commemoration of the kings survival. From this the tradition of holding big events to remember was born. The popular rhyme “remember remember the fifth of November” comes from a poem written at the time.
This one day echoed throughout the history of the country even to November 7th 2015, even next year the entire country will remember remember.
Oluwaseyitan osho
