Yeah I automatically thought of Guy Fawkes when I read about the stuffy guys (I'm English too.)
It's interesting how they take a familiar concept and do something else with it in Mid-World though. (I.e. the stuffys being in place of human sacrifices etc, whilst our guys representing Guy Fawkes.) Ours usually have padded heads of some description too (not sure what they are, pillows maybe) rather than root vegetables, although they might have used those in the past. Oh and they don't have painted red hands either (although there is something rather iconic about the stuffy guy version!)
As for the historical situation, a lot of it was the whole protestant vs Catholic thing if I remember correctly, Guy Fawkes being a 'catholic terrorist' (he wasn't strictly an anarchist, I don't think although his action was anarchic, in the loose sense of the word) attempting to blow up parliament (no doubt there was probably more to it than that.) The catholics were rather heavily persecuted and often outright murdered, which is part of the reason. Ironically both catholicism and protestantism is against murder, which just shows the ridiculousness of that kind of conflict.
Theres no getting round it, what Fawkes attempted to do (and he was just one activist for an entire body to be fair) was attempted mass murder though. The way they executed him was needlessly cruel though. (Hung, drawn and quartered.)
It's been a long time since I went to a bonfire gathering. Last one with an actual bonfire was some years back. I remember the kids with guys (I accidentally actually wrote 'stuffy guys' then ) outside the supermarket; "Penny for the guy!"
Have a nice view of the fireworks displays every year where I live. (I live on a hill and have a good view across part of London, including Crystal Palace. When I was a kid my mum used to sometimes make hot dogs and we'd watch) Last fireworkd display I actually visited was 2-3 years ago at Blackheath. That's another place with a dark history (a graveyard for plague victims. A big green field now!)