Is it time for the UK to call an end to Bonfire Night?
Legacy
On 5 November 1605 Londoners were encouraged to celebrate the King's escape from assassination by lighting bonfires, "always provided that 'this testemonye of joy be careful done without any danger or disorder'".An Act of Parliament designated each 5 November as a day of thanksgiving for "the joyful day of deliverance", and remained in force until 1859. Although he was only one of 13 conspirators, Fawkes is today the individual most associated with the failed Plot.
In Britain, 5 November has variously been called Guy Fawkes Night, Guy Fawkes Day and Bonfire Night; the latter can be traced directly back to the original celebration of 5 November 1605. Bonfires were accompanied by fireworks from the 1650s onwards, and it became the custom to burn an effigy (usually the Pope) after 1673, when the heir presumptive, James, Duke of York made his conversion to Catholicism public. Effigies of other notable figures who have become targets for the public's ire, such as Paul Kruger and Margaret Thatcher, have also found their way onto the bonfires, although most modern effigies are of Fawkes.The "guy" is normally created by children, from old clothes, newspapers, and a mask.[
The outcome was never in doubt. The jury found all of the defendants guilty, and the Lord Chief JusticeSir John Popham proclaimed them guilty of high treason.
The Attorney GeneralSir Edward Coke told the court that each of the condemned would be drawn backwards to his death, by a horse, his head near the ground. They were to be "put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both". Their genitals would be cut off and burnt before their eyes, and their bowels and hearts removed. They would then be decapitated, and the dismembered parts of their bodies displayed so that they might become "prey for the fowls of the air".
On 31 January 1606, Fawkes and three others – Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rockwood, and Robert Keyes – were dragged from the Tower on wattled hurdlesto the Old Palace Yard at Westminster, opposite the building they had attempted to destroy. His fellow plotters were hanged, drawn and quartered. Fawkes was the last to stand on the scaffold. He asked for forgiveness of the King and state, while keeping up his "crosses and idle ceremonies", and aided by the hangman began to climb the ladder to the noose. Although weakened by torture, Fawkes managed to jump from the gallows, breaking his neck in the fall and thus avoiding the agony of the latter part of his execution.] His lifeless body was nevertheless drawn and quartered, and as was the custom, his body parts were then distributed to "the four corners of the kingdom", to be displayed as a warning to other would-be traitors.
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes
Is it time to call an end to the annual UK celebrations on 5th November which started in 1605?
Many might say it is traditional but then so was fox hunting until some years ago.
405 years has passed since the celebrations commenced after the gunpowder plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament was foiled.
The culprits were hung, drawn and quartered, (another quaint english tradition at the time), but hardly worthy of discussion amongst young children who enjoy firework displays. In my younger years i can recall an effigy of Fawkes being dragged around the streets in a wheelbarrow with children shouting 'Penny for the Guy'. Little did we know or care that Mr Fawkes and his co-conspiritors had met such an ignominious end.
Is it really ok in current times to throw an effigy of Fawkes (or anyone else for that matter) on to a bonfire? Where are all the PC modernists? Why are they not raising concerns with local authorities over the issue? Has the issue already been blocked by Members of Parliament?
What is your opinion? Do we continue to act like barbarians or is it still just jolly good fun? :)
