Arcadia England
Remember, Remember the fifth of November
Date
October 31, 2014
Growing up in the USA, you probably associated fireworks with the 4th of July. In England firework displays are associated with New Year’s Eve and – if you’re a kid – with November 5th – Guy Fawkes Night. Although the ritual has changed since I was young (we used to make an effigy of Guy Fawkes and wheel him round in an old pram -“stroller” – accosting passers by at tube stations and bus stops, crying “penny for the guy”; if anyone gave us any money it went towards buying individual fireworks – the louder the bang the better - which we would carelessly set off before or during the 5th November commemoration of the 1606 Gunpowder Plot) you will still see both domestic and large-scale organised firework displays around the start of November.
An attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament
Wait a minute… we’re celebrating a 17th century act of terrorism? The Gunpowder Plot was an attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill King James I of England/VI of Scotland by a group of English Catholics committed to the overthrow of the Protestant establishment that had been aggressively excluding and persecuting Catholics for decades. Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators were apprehended in the cellars of Parliament “in the act” and were tried and executed. Depending on where you are in the British Isles (especially in Northern Ireland) there can still be anti-Catholic connotations to Bonfire Night.
Ironic twist
In a final ironic twist, the standard Guy Fawkes mask has been adopted as an anti-establishment trope over the last few years by the Occupy movements in the US and Europe – even cropping up in the huge student demonstrations in Hong Kong recently. So you can enjoy the displays, but also think about the complex meanings and historical resonances behind this British ritual.
If you’re looking for a public display to go to in London, check out these venues.