Guy Fawkes Day

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November

Gunpowder Treason and Plot.

I see no reason why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes Day has come and gone again and I can hardly believe it.  We really love this holiday for the novelty of it all: to remember the moment when Guy Fawkes (and his conspirators) almost blew Parliament and the Royal Family to smithereens in 1605!  The plot was discovered just in time, with Guy Fawkes and his 36 barrels of gunpowder beneath Parliament, candle-lantern in hand ready to light the fuse!  (btw the lantern is in a museum in Oxford. never been so excited to see a rusty old lantern!) So, for the 400 years since, people have been celebrating the day of Parliament's deliverance from such a plot by having huge 

bonfires and fireworks!

The best part is, that on every bonfire is an obligatory effigy of Guy Fawkes -- and he gets burned again and again, every 5th of November! You can see poor Guy sitting on the top of our bonfire.  It was HUGE.  

The celebrations were held at Kenilworth Castle, just down the street from our flat, which was nice because we could just walk there rather than fight for a parking space with the 12,000 other people who came! (Kenilworth's Bonfire Night is one of the most famous in the UK!)  

Our camera ran out of batteries (bloody hell!) so we didn't get any good pictures of the fireworks --this is the only one we got and it was on a piddly little explosion.  Oh well, you get the idea.  They lit the castle up with all kinds of colored lights and designs (ol' Queen Elizabeth I would've been proud--she held the biggest party in English history here in 1576!).  

We've been so well-trained by good old USA to expect Celine Dion and other country-western patriotic songs when fireworks are booming, so it was pretty awesome to have a fireworks show set to a medley of Queen's greatest hits! 

 

I was all wrapped up cause it started raining (can't believe I still haven't learned my lesson about carrying an umbrella pretty much everywhere).  We were totally soaked by the end of the night, but the massive fire kept us warm!  

Had Guy Fawkes succeeded we wouldn't have this or this in London today!  Reason enough to celebrate?  And burn Guy every year forever after?  Indeed!