Happy Guy Fawkes Day!

VA Viper ^ | 11/04/2016 | HarpyGoddess

[harpygoddess]

Happy Guy Fawkes Day, when God preserved us from the "secret contrivance and hellish malice of Popish Conspirators".

November 5th is Guy Fawkes Day in England, an unofficial holiday commemorating the failure of the so-called "Gunpowder Plot" on this date in 1605. A conspiracy of disgruntled English Catholics under the leadership of one Robert Catesby had succeeded in planting a large quantity of gunpowder in the cellar of the House of Lords with the intention of blowing up Parliament on its opening day, when King James I would have been present.

After one of the plotters warned a relative to stay away from Parliament that day, the scheme was discovered, and one of the key conspirators, Guy Fawkes, was essentially caught in the act.

All the plotters were apprehended and executed savagely, but the Gunpowder Plot had the unfortunate effect of perpetuating a deep distrust of "popery" and Roman Catholicism in England for centuries. (Catholics were barred from serving in Parliament for 224 years.) Today, the occasion is celebrated with bonfires, fireworks, and the construction of effigies of Guy Fawkes, carried about by bands of children begging "a penny for the Guy" from all they encounter.

[ctdonath2]

I’ve always been a bit confused by that. Kinda thing I can explain properly, but both ways make complete sense. Seems more like just an excuse for politically motivated partying.

[Bigg Red]

I post a blog weekly but do not require my readers to go to the blog to complete the article.

**
I did not intend to impugn blogs. There are many great ones out there. Bloggers, of course, do want others to read their work, and there are legitimate ways of generating interest. My criticism applies only to those who post here on FR excerpts from their own work in order to generate traffic to their own blogs. That is the definition of “blog-pimping”.