Remember, Remember the Fifth of November...
Right, so today is technically Guy Fawkes Night (or Bonfire Night), but the celebrations were mostly this past weekend.
The first thing I did to celebrate was to watch V for Vendetta again, to get into the mood. However, this fantastic movie has completely thrown off my view about what Bonfire night is all about. I assumed that since it was named after Guy Fawkes, that we were actually celebrating his attempt to overthrow the government (viva la revolution and all that jazz). Apparently I wasn't really clued into the fact that they burn Guy Fawkes in effigy at the celebration (which you normally wouldn't do if you're pro-Fawkes I guess).
So, it turns out that this is a celebration of the fact that they foiled the Gunpowder Plot. Damn!
However, I'm sticking with my original decision. When I celebrate the 5th of November, I'm celebrating the attempt to blow up Parliament! And when they say "God save the King" at the end of the rhyme, I'm going to say it with a distinctly sarcastic tone... so take that!
(Quick trivia: Guy Fawkes is where calling men "guys" comes from... now you can impress all your friends.)
So, I ended up going to a celebration at Victoria Park that was pretty sweet. There wasn't an actual bonfire, but the 100-foot tall burning skeleton of Guy Fawkes was quite excellent. And they had some of the best fireworks that I've seen in quite some time. About every 10 minutes they would have a flurry of fireworks that everyone assumed was the finale, and we would all clap and cheer... and then they kept going with more. Seriously, this happened at least 3 times.
I got a few good pictures of the fireworks and carnival area (and lots of shaky blurry pictures as well).
The big skeleton was moving around and lit a fuse that caused the Parliament tower/rocket ship thing to light on fire and shoot up into the air. We definitely need some flaming skeletons added to the 4th of July celebrations in the US. It's bound to be a winner.
Also, I am eagerly awaiting Laura's arrival in 4 days! And also eagerly cleaning the flat so she doesn't think I'm a total slob (or any more of a slob than she already realizes).
2 comments:
Fawking sweet pictures.
Sorry, someone had to say it.
I can't believe you fawking beat me to it!
I burned a Guy Fawkes effigy once.....once! I was arrested, obviously. There are certain celebrations that you cannot hold in a middle school gymnasium at 11:13 at night.
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