Guy Fawkes

[The Midnight Walker]

I LOVE 4th of july... have no clue about guy fawkes day though this is a UK thing?

Guy Fawkes day is a celebration the British have on the the 5th November every year. It commemorates the day when a man named Guy Fawkes was executed in 1605. He tried to blow up the British houses of parliament, to destroy the government and King James I, with 36 barrels of gunpowder. It is because of this we make a 'Guy', almost like a scarecrow, tied to the stake in a bonfire, to symbolise how he was destroyed. We also let off a lot of fireworks, as an obvious reference to the gunpowder he intended to use. It is a completely British thing, due it being tied directly to our history.

For further reference;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot

[raynetwilight]

I LOVE 4th of july... have no clue about guy fawkes day though this is a UK thing?

EDIT: Midnight beat me to it...I knew I shouldn't have stopped typing to get a bagel!

It's celebrated in the UK and some parts of the Commonwealth.

For most it's a celebration of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament while King James I, the Protestant aristocracy and nobility were inside. It was supposed to be a symbol against tyranny and discrimination against the English Catholics (even though some, if not most, of the Catholic aristocracy was supposed to be inside as well).

But they found Fawkes before the plan could be executed.

Now a lot of people burn Guy Fawkes effigies (scarecrows with Guy Fawkes masks) and then they light fireworks on the 5th of November.

[woody513]

You know how they found it he was going to do it? He wrote a letter to a Catholic MP telling him about the plot. The guy they wrote the letter to just told the authorities and he was caught. Lol

[Tricky Boy]

I would have had a bonfire, but you have to live on more than an acre to light a fire here. With bushfires and all that.

[raynetwilight]

^ I'm asking.

[Tricky Boy]

Or just do what everyone that lives near me does and have a bonfire anyway. I live way out in the rurals of PA (nearest city is over an hour away) and the state police (I don't live in any borough) will only come out here IF their called. Last time any cops or such was here to was to put out a burning car in my yard. (It was my sister's sixteenth birthday, don't ask)

Yeah, but they will call the police if you light a fire here. Ever heard of Black Saturday? They really don't want a repeat of that.

[raynetwilight]

Probably not no.

[raynetwilight]

Wow. Sounds like SOME party...

[Tricky Boy]

Black Saturday was the worst day of the bush fires in Victoria. 173 people died and 20,029 homes were destroyed.

[raynetwilight]

Or as they call that in California, an average day in Autumn.

LMAO, too true!