Remember, remember the fifth of November ... today is known as Guy Fawkes Night, Bonfire Night and Firework Night.

And while it may be a very different occasion this year thanks to the second lockdown, coronavirus and social distancing, some of you will be celebrating with displays in the garden.

Bonfire Night is an annual celebration observed on November 5 following the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 when 13 conspirators planned to blow up Parliament and kill King James I.

Fawkes was arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords.

1. November 5 was made a day of thanksgiving by an Act of Parliament by James 1 and was treated as a public holiday. The Act ordered people to attend church on the morning of the 5th, with a special November 5 service created. The Act was only repealed in 1859.

2. Not much is known about the sort of celebrations held in the early years. In some places - including Dorchester - there are records of fireworks and music as well as church bells rung.

3. Bonfires were not a big part of the November 5 tradition until the mid 1600s, when anti-Catholic feeling was at its highest. Bonfires were banned between 1649-60 - when the Puritan protestants were in charge - but returned with force when Charles II came to the throne. Guy Fawkes was often burned along with an effigy of the Pope.

4. The only place in the UK that does not celebrate Guy Fawkes Night is St. Peter’s School in York. Guy Fawkes went there as a boy and they refuse to burn his image in respect for their former pupil.

5. Physicists from the Institute of Physics have calculated that the 2,500kg of gunpowder Fawkes hid would have destroyed the Houses of Parliament and might have even been felt in Whitehall. In 2007 Richard Hammond recreated the explosion.

6. In Lewes, Guy Fawkes and the Pope are burned together. Six societies put on competing displays and parade burning crosses through the streets to remember the death of 17 Protestant martyrs during the reign of Mary I. 

7. In the West Country celebrations evolved in the 19th century into processions of floats. More than a third of a million bulbs are thought to be used during each carnival season. Each Carnival Club, like those of Lewes, has its own theme, which is kept secret while they work on building their creations. They then tour the towns of Somerset, starting in Bridgwater and winding their way through Weston-super-Mare and Wells before a grand finale in Glastonbury later in November. Which obviously won't be happening in 2020.

8. In Ottery St Mary, as well as the traditional carnival procession and bonfire, they also burn tar barrels. Competitors – who have to have been born in the town – run with the burning barrels on their shoulders until the heat becomes too unbearable or the barrel breaks down.

9. In Brockham, Surrey, they build a 40ft bonfire, then set it alight with more than 500 torches thrown on the bonfire in unison to set the inferno alight. An 8ft Guy, made from papier-mâché, is paraded through the streets, before being cast on to the bonfire. 

10. It is said that the word ‘guy’ actually comes from the name Guy Fawkes. It originally meant “an ugly, repulsive person” but, throughout the years, simply became a synonym for “man”.

11. One suggested origin for the word ‘bonfire’ is that derives from 'bone-fire', and comes from a time when the bodies of witches, heretics and other misfits were burned instead of being buried in holy ground.

12. The Houses of Parliament are still searched by the Yeomen of the Guard before the state opening which has been held in November since 1928. The idea is to ensure no modern-day Guy Fawkes is concealed in the cellars.

13. Guy Fawkes was named the 30th greatest Briton in a poll conducted by the BBC in 2002.

14. Shortly after being discovered, Fawkes was taken to the King's bedchamber to explain why he wanted to kill him and blow up Parliament. Fawkes calmly answered that he regarded the King as a disease since he had been excommunicated by the Pope. He also explained that he needed such a huge quantity of gunpowder "To blow you Scotch beggars back to your own native mountains!"

15. There are at least eight versions of the "remember, remember, the 5th of November" chant.

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent 
To blow up king and parliament. 
Three score barrels were laid below 
To prove old England's overthrow. 

By God's mercy he was catch'd 
With a darkened lantern and burning match. 
So, holler boys, holler boys, Let the bells ring. 
Holler boys, holler boys, God save the king.

And what shall we do with him? 
Burn him