Guy Fawkes Night
Nov. 5th, 2004 06:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arysteiaFor non-Commonwealth citizens, November 5 is when we celebrate the Gunpowder Plot. Well, obviously we're celebrating the fact that the plot was thwarted, not the fact that some guy (heh!) tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who's sorta kinda on poor Mr Fawkes' side. Our MPs could *do* with a bit of a bollocking.
When I was a kid, I distinctly remember being taught that Parliament was all that was great and good, democracy yadda yadda, and Guy Fawkes and friends were evil ne'er-do-wells who wanted to kill the King, God Save 'Im.
Then I grew up and studied History, and learned that Fawkes and friends were disenfranchised Catholics, able neither to practise their religion, nor vote. And that he was racked, thumb-screwed, and otherwise tortured into confessing and recanting, before being hung, drawn and quartered. Now that's a horse of a different colour...
Naturally, most people don't have a clue what they're actually doing, other than lighting fires and blowing shit up. On the one day of the year that they're legally allowed to. And the Fire Department hates it, because dozens of morons manage to set their own or their neighbours' houses on fire, and the SPCA hates it, because there's always some monster who thinks it's funny to strap explosives to animals...
And I feel disconcerted all of a sudden, and wish I hadn't agreed to go to the fireworks display. Because I'm having a sudden visceral memory of a Guy Fawkes party I went to as a kid, barely out of kindergarten, where the adults lit the most enormous bonfire in the back yard, and actually burned the guy on it. And noone does that anymore, admittedly, probably due to fire regulations, but that's how you used to celebrate Guy Fawkes. Stuff a set of old clothes with straw, stick a head on top, and burn him on a pyre. And oh my god, this is the most stream of consciousness post I've ever made, because I was just fooling around at first, but now I'm upset.
We stood around and symbolically reenacted burning someone at the stake? And parents took their kids? That is the most warped thing I can imagine. Does the fact that noone knows what they're doing make it better or worse? And how the hell did it take me this long to click?
I'm sorely tempted to delete this post now, but it seems like a cop-out. I think I have to vindicate Guy's protest, and leave it up.
When I was a kid, I distinctly remember being taught that Parliament was all that was great and good, democracy yadda yadda, and Guy Fawkes and friends were evil ne'er-do-wells who wanted to kill the King, God Save 'Im.
Then I grew up and studied History, and learned that Fawkes and friends were disenfranchised Catholics, able neither to practise their religion, nor vote. And that he was racked, thumb-screwed, and otherwise tortured into confessing and recanting, before being hung, drawn and quartered. Now that's a horse of a different colour...
Naturally, most people don't have a clue what they're actually doing, other than lighting fires and blowing shit up. On the one day of the year that they're legally allowed to. And the Fire Department hates it, because dozens of morons manage to set their own or their neighbours' houses on fire, and the SPCA hates it, because there's always some monster who thinks it's funny to strap explosives to animals...
And I feel disconcerted all of a sudden, and wish I hadn't agreed to go to the fireworks display. Because I'm having a sudden visceral memory of a Guy Fawkes party I went to as a kid, barely out of kindergarten, where the adults lit the most enormous bonfire in the back yard, and actually burned the guy on it. And noone does that anymore, admittedly, probably due to fire regulations, but that's how you used to celebrate Guy Fawkes. Stuff a set of old clothes with straw, stick a head on top, and burn him on a pyre. And oh my god, this is the most stream of consciousness post I've ever made, because I was just fooling around at first, but now I'm upset.
We stood around and symbolically reenacted burning someone at the stake? And parents took their kids? That is the most warped thing I can imagine. Does the fact that noone knows what they're doing make it better or worse? And how the hell did it take me this long to click?
I'm sorely tempted to delete this post now, but it seems like a cop-out. I think I have to vindicate Guy's protest, and leave it up.
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no subject
Date: 2004-11-05 06:30 am (UTC)Some of the public ones are well done and much better than adding to "The Big Red Shed's" profit margin
no subject
Date: 2004-11-05 10:41 pm (UTC)I saw a surprising number of skyrockets last night. I don't know if every hoon in town stockpiled the year before the ban went into effect... The boyracers on the main drag were firing them in the *street*.
Yeah, this is one holiday I'd like to see phased out. And I think the public displays are a good step in that direction. Now all we have to do is shift them to Waitangi Day... Or Chinese New Year... Or...
no subject
Date: 2004-11-06 12:43 am (UTC)Bonfire night comes very soon after the clocks go back (to GMT) here in the UK. That means that we are all suddenly plunged into darkness a lot earlier. The weather is always dreadful - freezing cold or damp or foggy. Yet we all drag ourselves out to be spat at by smoking bonfires and risk cricked necks, at the very least, oohing and aahing at incredibly noisy (and expensive) fireworks. It always feels remarkably pagan to me, almost as if the history is a bit of a pretext. And yes, baser instincts definitely seem to come to the fore.
I (very pompously) don't approve of private individuals being able to buy fireworks and so we always used to go to organised displays when the kids were little. It's one of those situations where you almost feel guilty for spoiling your childrens' fun and faintly ridiculous for being overly protective, but you just can't let it go.
You're right, it is alarming how popular history can so misrepresent events. The more history I study, the more I realise you can't really trust anybody to give a totally accurate and impartial account, and I find that dispiriting sometimes.
I hope everything goes well at your display,
Patroklos