Remember Remember the Fifth of November

[PIE!]

We're not British, but, thanks to SOTW, my kids love Guy Fawkes Day. 

 

Are you observing this holiday? What do you do?

 

[RootAnn]

We're Catholic & thus do not observe this "holiday."

 

Did you know that George Washington asked his troops to stop celebrating Guy Falkes day because they should recognize that it offends the Catholics who were helping them in the Revolutionary War?

[Laura Corin]

There are lots of fireworks going off in the distance.  Hobbes wasn't interested in celebrating this year.

[PIE!]

I was unaware of that. I'm naive enough that it didn't even occur to me that it could be offensive to Catholics. I hope I didnt offend.

 

But we do like to take a taste of other cultural traditions, though not always embracing them.

[PIE!]

Fireworks sound fun :)

[Farrar]

We just finished Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones. Does that count? Also, dh put "remember, remember" on the calendar.

 

Do people in UK think of it as being really anti-Catholic? I had heard that before, I guess, but I had the impression that as a cultural tradition it had mostly moved to just being about fire in all its various hypnotizing forms.

[RootAnn]

Well, it has been known as "Pope Day" (not in a good way) in the US colonies and burning the Pope in effigy is one of the options for the "guy" 

 

Farrar, that very question was asked in the UK as recently as 4 years ago. While the anti-Catholic sentiment as been toned down in recent years, the day's history is clear.

 

I do find it interesting that anarchist groups have adopted Guy Fawkes-like masks to tout their protestations.

 

In the spirit of SOTW, I'm all for teaching my kids history. And the history of the event was certainly the Catholics vs. King James I.

[IsabelC]

I used to love it as a kid. We called it "Cracker Night" and had a big bonfire (although we never did an effigy, just a fire). I had a favorite book about Guy Fawkes which was probably totally inaccurate, but I liked it. Still haven't forgiven the government for banning fireworks. I didn't really think about historical/political implications when I was a child. Our other Cracker Night was 24th May, which I now know is actually Commonwealth Day, formerly Empire Day. 

[PIE!]

Now I want gingerbread.

[Laura Corin]

I didn't grow up thinking about it being connected with Catholicism at all.  It was about 'someone' trying to blow up the government.  That's as far as the common folk tale went.

 

FWIW, this year the town of Lewes in England is burning Alex Salmond in effigy (former head of the independent Scotland campaign).  One year they burned Osama Bin Laden.

 

L

[Haiku]

My British friends, including the Catholic ones, tell me that Bonfire Night has lost its religious and political significance and is simply a cultural holiday now.

 

We threw a picture of Guy Fawkes on the fire last night and chanted the Remember Remember chant after the kids explained to their dad what Guy Fawkes day is all about. My dh grew up Catholic.

 

I don't really care one way or another what religion the participants were, and I know James I was enforcing anti-Catholic laws (and as a member of a minority religion, I am opposed to state enforcement of religion and suppression of religious freedom), but then again, the Gunpowder Plotters wanted to kill a lot of people, so they weren't exactly in the right, either.