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Originally Posted by MrB

USA does not celebrate Nov 5th ,bonfire night, (was originally the end of the pagan year) as the event celebrates an unsuccesful attempt to blow up the british parliment... USA prefers to celebrate success and do so on July 4th when they successfully kicked us out.

Why do we a celebrate failure?

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My understanding is that they were trying to blow up King James who was due at parliament that day (opening possibly). I think it was another one of those Protestant/Catholic things . He designated it a day of celebration when they failed (fair enough I suppose and kind of a success for him).
I believe it's still quite big in Newfoundland, which is a little bit closer if the OP is really desperate.