Guy Fawkes Day

[NeverMore]

Seeing as I had to work Thursday night I didn't get to do my yearly viewing of 'V for
Vengeance'. I plan on doing it tonight, along with some more Bloody Marys (slurp:-).
Had enough Margaritas and beer last night thank you.

I find it a bit disappointing that Guy Fawkes Day seems to be dying out in England.
The article cites growing safety regulations and the commercial exploitation of
Halloween. Shame! This is a tradition that is much older than our country.

Another article says that Fawkes' hometown hasn't even had a public fireworks
demonstration in four years. I'd be curious to hear from Ghoul of the Graves and Boo
to see if they partook in the celebrations.

[jadewik]

Awe... and I thought England had a good thing going. Hate to see it die out.

I did wish a lot of people a Happy Guy Fawkes Day and ask "Penny for the Guy" around a couple forums. (Apparently, not this one.) A day or so later, I did watch "V for Vendetta". Great film.... but I couldn't help but parallel the movie to present-times...

[witchy]

I've never heard of Guy Fawkes Day before, but it sounded wonderful, it's ashame it's dieing out. maybe start a petition or something. Sorry to hear that!!! Witchy

[Murfreesboro]

Well, that tradition only goes back to the Gunpowder Plot of 16-0h-something (3? 4? 5?). So I wouldn't say it's "much older" than our country, unless you are counting our country from 1776. But Jamestown was colonized in 1609, I believe. Basically, we're talking about Shakespeare's lifetime. Yeah, it's old, but not ancient as England counts ancient, and roughly coeval with us. Sad to hear that the nanny state is putting an end to it, though, with over-regulation. Personally, I think Halloween is way cooler, anyway.

V for Vendetta is a good movie.

[writerpatrick]

I can never remember when it is because it's not celebrated in Canada. The holiday was never imported like St. Patrick's Day or Robbie Burns Day. Although Robbie Burns Day isn't really celebrated all that much but some people do get together at bars and community centers to celebrate it. (I always forget about RB Day, even though I know it's somewhere around the end of January.)

Guy Faukes Day seemed to me to be England's excuse for fireworks. In Canada we've generally done that on Victoria Day (celebrating Queen Victoria's birthday) but Canada Day (July 1st) is growing in popularity for fireworks. It use to be that only major firework displays were seen.

(Two firework holidays? What can I say. Canadians just like to blow things up--and blow them up good. Real good.)

[NeverMore]

.
Guy Fawkes Day is on a Friday next year. Might be interesting to go to the Shakespeare
Pub that evening. That place is just like walking into a pub in the English countryside. It's
also almost impossible to get in during football (soccer) matches.

Just found out that one of the towns to the east of us does firework and bonfires on the
fifth. Must have a large English population.

[Murfreesboro]

(Two firework holidays? What can I say. Canadians just like to blow things up--and blow them up good. Real good.)

We used to have two fireworks holidays in Mississippi, Christmas and 4th of July. No one outside the deep South ever associated fireworks with Christmas, and not many Southerners do now, either. But when I was a child in the '60s, that tradition still held. It was because Vicksburg, MS, fell on the 4th of July (during the Civil War), so for many years afterward--I'm talking decades--people in the South refused to celebrate the 4th. (I think Gettysburg may have happened right about the same time, too, compounding the negative feelings Southerners had for the 4th.) By the time I was born, folks were back to celebrating the 4th of July, but they still shot off fireworks on Christmas.

Anyway, in the years following the Civil War, fireworks manufacturers still wanted to sell their wares, so Southerners began shooting off fireworks on Christmas night. I've done it many times myself. In my adulthood, though, people seem to have gotten away from that. Now the 4th is huge, and some people will shoot off fireworks at New Year's. I never hear them on Christmas night anymore.