Ruling on celebrating Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire Night

Praise
be to Allah

Guy Fawkes Night happens on the fifth of November in the
solar calendar. The people of the United Kingdom (Britain) also know it as
the Gunpowder Plot, or Bonfire Night. For them it is a special date and a
special story.

This Guy Fawkes (1570-1606 CE) was one of a group of
conspirators who planned to assassinate the king, James the First, and his
Protestant Parliament on the fifth of November 1605 CE. This conspiracy is
popularly known as the Gunpowder Plot. Guy Fawkes and all his
co-conspirators were Roman Catholics who were exposed to the hostile
anti-Catholic attitude of the Protestant British parliament, because full
power of the law was only brought to bear against Catholics.

Robert Catesby was the leader of the conspirators. It was he
who had leased an undercroft or cellar beneath the Parliament building and
filled it with barrels of gunpowder. The role of Guy Fawkes was to light the
fuse, but the government pre-empted events and the plot failed. Then Guy
Fawkes was arrested, tried and executed.

Many British people celebrate Guy Fawkes night annually on
the fifth of November, by lighting fireworks.

End quote from al-Mawsoo‘ah al-‘Arabiyyah al-‘Aalamiyyah.

It says on Wikipedia:

Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day,

Bonfire
Night and Firework
Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in

Great
Britain. Its history
begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when

Guy Fawkes,
a member of the

Gunpowder
Plot, was arrested while
guarding

explosives
the plotters had placed beneath the

House of
Lords. Celebrating the
fact that

King James I
had survived the attempt on his life, people lit

bonfires
around London, and months later the introduction of the

Observance
of 5th November Act
enforced an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot’s failure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night

Many authors have written about the Protestant religious
overtones of this celebration, because it is emblematic of anti-Catholic
sentiment that was at its peak during that period. Hence this celebration
was accompanied by some religious rituals, and it would stir up various
kinds of religious, political and social arguments on this occasion in
British newspapers in particular, which indicates to the researcher that all
these factors should be taken together in order to understand the phenomenon
of Guy Fawkes Night and to deal with its culture and history.

Whatever the case, we have previously explained on our
website the clear Islamic ruling that is binding upon the Muslims, which is
to stay away from these special occasions or festivals that are exclusive to
some other religions, peoples and cultures, and to strive to fully embrace
the Islamic identity that unites Muslims, far removed from any embrace of
political, social and cultural traditions of other nations, the most serious
of which are their religious traditions.

See: 101347,
101404, 217241, 148544,
115148 and 90026.

Al-‘Allaamah Muhammad Rasheed Rida (may Allah have mercy on
him) said:

If we look at the issue of imitating others from a political
point of view, it becomes clear to us that the correct thing is for our
ummah to keep away from imitating other nations in terms of clothing and
tradition, and everything that is of no benefit, especially imitating those
who are opposing us and hostile towards us, but we should be encouraged to
imitate them in everything that could bring us benefits, especially benefits
that have to do with the power to defend the Muslim ummah and to increase
Muslim wealth, by striving hard to keep pace with them in that regard, and
in fact to compete with them to attain the sources and means of these
benefits. We should not be limited to bringing the products of their
factories and inventions, such as weapons and warships, because imitating
them in the sense of acquiring these things by buying them from them and
being like them in that regard does not help us to be independent of them,
and in that case there will be no hope for us of coming close to where they
are, let alone being at the same level as them, let alone being able to
surpass them and go ahead of them, especially when you see us now in such a
miserable state. Yet we do not deny the blessings of Allah.

End quote from Majallat al-Manaar, 1/551

And Allah knows best.