Does Bonfire Night Predate Guy Fawkes?

Yes, effectively it harks back to a pagan tradition.

Halloween (all Hallows eve) as we know it evolved from the pagan festival, Samhain, which itself marked the end of the harvest and the onset of winter. One way to clear out negative thoughts, cheer your Celtic heart up (and to clear the fields ready for planting next year) was to have a bonfire.

To celebrate his escape from death in the gun powder plot, King James I ordered that people throughout the land should celebrate by having a bonfire on the night of his survival, 5 November. Although James was hardly capable of orchestrated the date (the opening of Parliament had been delayed several times that year), the success of his orders was possibly partly due to the coincident timing with the end of harvest and the folk culture remnants of pagan customs.

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