Guy Fawkes Night

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

Gunpowder treason and plot.

We see no reason

Why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot!

Today is Guy Fawkes Night in the United Kingdom. Also known as Bonfire Night, it commemorates the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 in which a group of Catholics attempted to kill the protestant King James I and replace him with a Catholic head of state. The plot included an attempt to blow up the House of Lords and Guy Fawkes was the conspirator designated to guard the explosives cache. Authorities received an anonymous tip and arrested Fawkes in Westminster Abbey. They then preceded to torture him until he revealed the rest of the conspirators. In the aftermath, the King granted permission for the people of London to build bonfires in thanksgiving for his survival. England continues to commemorate the occasion by burning an effigy of Fawkes on a bonfire and setting off fireworks. This seems to be the only holiday where the British celebrates the existence of the state so it is a bit like the Fourth of July in that respect, however the tensions between Catholicism and the Church of England are a marked difference from the largely secular Independence day. Fireworks have been going off around Oxford intermittently from about 6PM-10PM. I assumed that they were personal fireworks that people set off in the streets and as these are illegal in CA I was eager to see the general hubbub. But as it turns out, they are fairly small scale professional shows hosted by the colleges. They can’t rival the Fourth of July in altitude, duration or pyrotechnics. But there is something exhilarating about watching the fireworks get shot off from less than a hundred yards away and watching the occasional misfire that spirals precariously close to nearby trees before sputtering out.