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The hacktivist group Anonymous “celebrated” the fifth of November (Guy Fawkes Day) through protest marches, defacing websites, and releasing the credit card information of law enforcement officers. The British holiday Guy Fawkes Day was popularized in the 2005 film "V for Vendetta", where a mask-wearing outcast overthrows a future totalitarian society. The holiday commemorates an actual historical event, where Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the British House of Lords in 1605.

“Remember, remember the fifth of November,” instructs the old nursery rhyme, and offers a useful summary: “Gunpowder, treason and plot.” But we have never been sure quite what, or how, we should be remembering. On 5 November 1605 a small gang of Catholics and minor noblemen plotted to blow up the Houses of Parliament, during the State Opening at which King James I would be present. One of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes, was caught with the gunpowder before he set it off. The other plotters were soon caught, and all were executed. By government decree, the date was soon declared...

Remember, Remember Published Monday, November 5, 2012 A.D. | By Donald R. McClarey The idiotic anti-Catholic celebration of Guy Fawkes Day , observed each November fifth, was effectively ended in America during the Revolution, in large part due to George Washington.  Here is his order on November 5, 1775:As the Commander in Chief has been apprized of a design form’d for the observance of that ridiculous and childish custom of burning the Effigy of the pope–He cannot help expressing his surprise that there should be Officers and Soldiers in this army so void of common sense, as not to see...

Back when I was in my Anglican interim, I loved commemorating Guy Fawkes Day. A haunting little historical nursery rhyme, bonfires, the burning of effigies, and children in raggedy clothes with ash-blackened faces accosting householders, begging A penny for the Guy!—what’s not to love? I had a vague notion of the historical events behind the festivities, and knew that Shakespeare had referenced them in his haunted (and contemporaneous) masterpiece, Macbeth. Mostly, though, what I knew about Guy Fawkes day was that some bad guy named Guy had tried to blow up the English Parliament, but the plot was foiled and...

AS bonfires and fireworks light up the night sky over the next few days, many people enjoying the spectacle may not realise how close West Oxfordshire’s link is to the events Bonfire Night recalls. Chastleton House, near Chipping Norton, used to be owned by the leading figure behind the ill-fated plot to blow up Parliament, Robert Catesby. Although Guy Fawkes, the man caught in Parliament’s cellars with the barrels of gunpowder, is remembered each year – and effigies of him burned on bonfires – it was actually Catesby who led the 1605 plan. Catesby was a devout Catholic who grew...

[...]Now comes the part with the compelling case of no movie at all. Abdurrahman writes (embedded link): If you watch closely, you can see that when the actors are reading parts of the script that do not contain Islam-specific language, the audio from the sound stage is used (the audio that was recorded as the actors were simultaneously being filmed). But anytime the actors are referring to something specific to the religion (the Prophet Muhammed, the Quran, etc.) the audio recorded during filming is replaced with a poorly executed post-production dub. And if you look EVEN closer, you can see...

The crowd grew throughout the evening with thousands standing outside the embassy. Dozens of riot police lined up along the embassy walls but did not stop protesters as they continued to climb and stand on the wall – though it appeared no more went into the compound. The crowd chanted, “Islamic, Islamic. The right of our prophet will not die.” Some shouted, “We are all Osama,” referring to al-Qaida leader bin Laden. Young men, some in masks, sprayed graffiti on the walls. Some grumbled that Islamist President Mohammed Morsi had not spoken out about the movie. The Islamists stormed the...

Freepers I need some help with grabbing an image off of a Fox News video and have no idea how to do it. Fox News is showing what happened today in Egypt and in the scene of the US flag being torn down there is an individual standing on the wall wearing a Guy Fawkes mask. How can I capture that image? vob

Remember, remember the Fifth of November. And remember to wear your mask! Your Guy Fawkes/"V for Vendetta" mask, that is. No, Halloween is not over. You can keep wearing your costume into November, especially today, November 5th, Guy Fawkes Day. It's the trendy outfit to wear to your local Occupy protest. All the cool Guys and gals are wearing it. And when you walk into your bank today to close out your account, and they look at you a little funny because you're wearing a mask, don't be alarmed, even if you start hearing an alarm! Just tell them...

For those following the Occupy movement that has been protesting on Wall Street in New York and many other cities, the masked face of Anonymous has become an increasingly common symbol. If you have not seen the face of Anonymous, he has pale white skin, black hair and a long moustache, a long thin angular face and a 16th-century black hat. The visual image used by the protesters is drawn from the film "Vendetta," which was in turn derived from a graphic novel, or long comic book, set in a futuristic Britain, where a rebel against a tyrannical government uses...

First we are not talking about the cute little tikes in their darling costumes, with Mommy or Daddy in tow. I am talking about the older kids that don’t show up at your door until 9 o’clock or later. The ones that are either too lazy to wear a costume and just want free candy (young Democrats), or they dress up as a zombie (again young Democrats), or dress in sexy tart costumes which makes you wonder what kind of parent lets their 15 year old daughter old go out on the street like that? (OK, I know, I know,...

Remember; remember the 5th of November with Guy Fawkes apps on iPad. As the traditional English event of Guy Fawkes, bonfire night comes around again we thought it would be a good idea to let you in on some available apps. Guy Fawkes (1570 – 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, the adopted Italian version of his name, and in his memorandum described James I as “a heretic”, who intended “to have the entire Papist sect driven out of England. He belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Fawkes became synonymous...

In the year of our Lord 1605, a cadre of English Roman Catholics attempted the assassination of the Protestant King James the 1st along with the entire British Parliament. Led by a fellow named Robert Catesby, the plan involved the conspirators procuring the lease to an undercroft (a sort of storage vault) directly below the House of Lords. The plotters stockpiled some 36 casks of gunpowder — enough to (excuse the trope) blow James the 1st and the rest of British government to kingdom come. At this time, the Church of Rome had adopted the philosophy; faith is not to...

The BBC is producing a new Doctor Who Adventure Game called The Gunpowder Plot, featuring a cast including Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill and Ralf Little, who’s playing the role of Guy Fawkes. Guy Fawkes was part of a group of English Catholics who planned to blow up the House of Parliament over 400 years ago. The plan had been to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic King or Queen to the throne, and the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605 is still celebrated today across the UK. November 5 is known as Guy Fawkes Night, or Bonfire...

Bonfires and elaborate firework displays will be started across England tonight to commemorate one of the most notorious terrorist plots in British history. Known as the Gunpowder Plot, Nov. 5 marks the day that former soldier Guy Fawkes was caught in the basement of Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder in a scheme to blow up the building, the king and all representatives inside in an attempt to restore Catholicism in England. Although notorious in England, in America, Fawkes is synonymous with the graphic novel-turned-movie, "V for Vendetta" (2006). In a futuristic take on Fawkes, V wants to blow up...

IT’S Bonfire Night tonight (Friday) with Hatfield House staging the area’s biggest November 5 firework display to commemorate the capture of mercenary Guy Fawkes. EVERYONE remembers the fifth of November for Gunpowder Treason and Plot, but one part of the history that may have been ‘forgot’ is Hatfield’s role in the story. The current Marquess of Salisbury, who lives at Hatfield House, is a direct descendant of the man who uncovered the plot to kill King James I. He is the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great (11 times) grandson of the gnarled monarch’s Machiavellian...

...As the Commander in Chief has been apprized of a design form'd for the observance of that ridiculous and childish custom of burning the Effigy of the pope--He cannot help expressing his surprise that there should be Officers and Soldiers in this army so void of common sense, as not to see the impropriety of such a step at this Juncture; at a Time when we are solliciting, and have really obtain'd, the friendship and alliance of the people of Canada, whom we ought to consider as Brethren embarked in the same Cause. The defence of the general Liberty of...

Guy Fawkes night has been celebrated and commemorated in England since the 5th November 1605, where an effigy of Guy Fawkes is burned on a bonfire and accompanied by a fireworks display. Guy Fawkes was born in York on the 13th of April 1570. His father died when he was eight years old and his mother went on to marry a Catholic to which Guy Fawkes himself converted to Catholism and left England to fight for the Spanish Catholics against the Dutch Protestants. He was very much a military man and by 1603 had been recommended for Captaincy, describing James...

PUPILS at St Peter’s School in York will not be celebrating November 5 with a bonfire. The private school in York will be maintaining its tradition this year of not putting a Guy on the bonfire. The reason for this is that Guy Fawkes, pictured, born 1570, is probably the school’s most well-known and notorious old boy. He attended the school in the 1580s when Elizabeth I was on the throne and life was very difficult for Catholics. Although born a Protestant, after his father died his mother married into an important extended Catholic family, many of whom at the...

Speaking recently to a meeting of several hundred people, I quoted words from John Henry Newman’s poem “Lead kindly Light”. They express his affectionate memory of those he had “loved long since and lost awhile”. Someone asked afterwards, “John Henry who?”. I explained that it was Cardinal Newman, an Anglican, later a Roman Catholic, priest. He was to be beatified by Pope Benedict on September 19. He was one of the eminent Victorians whose fame, like that of Darwin and Dickens, Huxley and Hardy, Wellington and Wordsworth lives on. Dr Newman lived at a very different ‘point in time’ than...