Bonfire Night 2026: Date, Fireworks Rules and the Story of Guy Fawkes

Thursday, November 5, 2026. Because it falls on a school and work night, many organised displays are held on the nearest weekends instead: Saturday, October 31 and Saturday and Sunday, November 7-8. A few events, including the Lewes Bonfire celebrations in East Sussex, stay on the 5th itself. Sources: Visit London, Galactic Fireworks, Sussex Express.

No. November 5 is not a bank holiday anywhere in the UK, and schools and workplaces are open as normal on Thursday, November 5, 2026. The next bank holidays in England and Wales are Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Source: GOV.UK.

It marks the failure of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when a group of English Catholic conspirators planned to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on November 5 and kill the Protestant King James I. Guy Fawkes was caught guarding barrels of gunpowder in a cellar beneath the Lords around midnight on November 4-5. Londoners lit bonfires to celebrate the king's survival, and an Act of Parliament in 1606 made November 5 a day of thanksgiving; that law was repealed in 1859, but the bonfires stayed. Sources: UK Parliament, Britannica.

Guy Fawkes (1570-1606) was a Catholic from York who had fought for Spain in the Low Countries, where he learned to handle explosives. He was not the leader of the plot, which was organised by Robert Catesby, but he was put in charge of the gunpowder, so he was the man arrested in the cellar. After interrogation he was tried and executed in January 1606. His effigy, the "guy", is what is traditionally burned on the bonfire. Sources: UK Parliament, Britannica.

In England and Wales, fireworks may not be used between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., but on Bonfire Night the limit moves to midnight. (It is 1 a.m. on New Year's Eve, Diwali and Chinese New Year.) Breaking the curfew can bring an unlimited fine or up to six months in prison, and you must be 18 or over to buy adult fireworks. Source: GOV.UK.

Two of the biggest are on the weekend after the 5th. Battersea Park Fireworks, run by Wandsworth Council, is on Saturday, November 7 and Sunday, November 8, with fireworks around 8.30 p.m. on Saturday and 7 p.m. on Sunday, according to listings. Alexandra Palace holds a fireworks and drone festival on November 7-8, with tickets reported at about £10.50 to £17. Prices and times vary between listings, so check the organiser's site before buying. Sources: Visit London, JustPark, Galactic Fireworks.

Lewes, in East Sussex, holds Britain's best-known bonfire celebrations on Thursday, November 5, with processions by the town's bonfire societies, but the authorities and the societies ask people from outside the town not to travel. Road closures start at 4.45 p.m., and trains are not expected to stop at Lewes, Falmer, Cooksbridge, Glynde or Southease from 5 p.m. until the next morning, according to Govia Thameslink Railway. The event is described as unsuitable for young children and dogs. Sources: GTR, Sussex Express, Lewes District Council.

It is the first line of a traditional rhyme about the plot: "Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot." It was used to keep the memory of the failed attack alive and is still recited by children on Bonfire Night. Source: Britannica.

Traditional Bonfire Night food is warming and easy to eat outdoors: jacket potatoes, sausages and hot dogs, toffee apples, bonfire toffee (treacle toffee), and in northern England parkin, a sticky ginger and oat cake. Hot soup and mulled drinks are common at organised displays.

The stylised smiling mask comes from V for Vendetta, the comic by Alan Moore and illustrator David Lloyd in the 1980s, whose hero wears a Guy Fawkes face. The 2005 film adaptation popularised it, and protesters from the online collective Anonymous adopted it in the late 2000s. It is a modern design, not a 17th-century one. Source: Britannica.

Yes, on a smaller scale. It is still marked in New Zealand and in parts of Canada, notably Newfoundland and Labrador, where November 5 bonfires are a local tradition. In Northern Ireland, Halloween fireworks are often more prominent than November 5. Source: Britannica.

Animal charities advise keeping dogs and cats indoors after dark, walking dogs before the fireworks start, closing curtains and putting on the TV or radio to mask the noise, and giving pets a quiet place to hide. On November 5, 2026, and over the weekends of October 31 and November 7-8, expect fireworks on several evenings, not just one.