Tomorrow is bonfire night, and while the tradition is rooted in British political and religious history, it has developed a deep cultural connection in this province over the years.

MUN Archivist Nicole Penney says the annual event started in 1605 following a failed attempt to blow up the British parliament and kill King James I.

She says the king was thrilled about not getting blown up and let people celebrate by having bonfires and burning effigies of Guy Fawkes, who was captured in connection to the gunpowder plot.

Penney says over the years the annual event has lost some of its traditional meaning, and became more of a social gathering.

In this province, she says the event became connected with children in particular, where they would “buck,” or take, items from around town in preparation for the big blaze.

She cites an account from the Daily News in Deer Lake back in 1962 where she says hundreds of teenagers nailed together 50 barrels, filled them with boughs and 80 tires, and “watched the flames shoot high into the sky.”