>children carrying around various "Guys"

Actually, ours were generally too big to carry - here's a description close to my own experience:

"For weeks before November 5, Guy Fawkes Night, my brother and I gathered old rags and discarded clothes to make our "Guy," our effigy of Guy Fawkes, symbol of the Gunpowder Plot.

A little ragged sewing fashioned false feet and hands. We'd stuff a pudgy, vaguely head-shaped bulb on which we'd draw a face. Setting our creation in a borrowed wheelbarrow, we pushed it gleefully up and down the street, accosting every adult we met with broad grins and the ever popular demand: "Penny for the Guy?"

After we raised what felt like a king's ransom, our mother would take us to the shops, and we'd choose all the fireworks we wanted. Fully armed and primed, we eagerly would await the night."

http://www.crescentblues.com/11issue/fawkes.shtml