[Stoat]

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Tower Hamlets replaces Guy Fawkes with Bengali firework festival News This is London

Tower Hamlets replaces Guy Fawkes with Bengali firework festival

02.11.06

 

Consigned to history? Guy Fawkes has been dropped from bonfire night at Hackney

A left-wing council plans to abandon Guy Fawkes night in favour of holding a £75,000 fireworks party celebrating an obscure Indian folk tale, it emerged yesterday.

The decision to hold the event, 'The Emperor and The Tiger' on November 5 instead of the usual bonfire night celebration was described as 'political correctness gone mad'.

Critics accuse the Labour-controlled council of deleting from history one of Britain's most important episodes and destroying a tradition cherished by generations of children.

Tower Hamlets Council, in London, which has a large Asian community, held a Guy Fawkes-themed fireworks party last year.

Around 23,000 people flocked to Victoria Park to watch a huge model of the Houses of Parliament burn, marking the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot.

Rather than replicating the success, the council has dismissed objections by saying: 'We did Guy Fawkes last year.'

The borough will instead celebrate a folk tale from the Bengali community which tells the story of the 'Moghul Emperor, the Wise Man and the Guardian of the Jungle'.

A 12ft long mechanical Bengal Tiger, operated by four people will pace a giant catwalk as fire lights up a 'forest' to the sound of Bangla drummers and dancers.

'The greedy Emperor wants his taxes, and the people must pay,' according to the event's publicity.

The council said its policy was to use a different 'theme' for November 5 each year to draw the crowds.

Liz Pugh, producer for Manchester-based arts outfit Walk the Plank, which has been commissioned to run the show, said the 'theme' was the council's idea.

She said: 'They came to us last summer and commissioned a piece of work involving the Bengali community.

'They wanted us to build a show around the Bengal tiger and a Bengali Folk Tale and turn that into a fire show.'

Asked if the council had included scope for a bonfire or a Guy, she said: 'No, not at all.

'We did the Guy Fawkes theme last year and this year we wanted to do something different, but just as big.'

John Midgley, spokesman for the Campaign Against Political Correctness, said the council's decision would 'explode in their faces'.

He said: 'This is blatantly ridiculous. It's almost too insane for words. There's a time and a place for everything and November 5 is for Bonfire Night.

'It's time for common sense and for people to tell bureaucrats that politically correct actions like these undermine our historic occasions and harm community relations.

''This is a massive own goal.'

A Tory councillor, Tim Archer railed against the abandonment of a historic tradition.

Mr Archer said: 'Bonfire night is a celebration of our rich and proud history and it would appear it's being air-brushed out with some sort of attempt to be politically correct.'

Elsewhere in Britain, millions will commemorate the events of November 5, 1605, when Roman Catholic Guido Fawkes failed blow up Protestant James I in the Houses of Parliament.

Fawkes, voted among the 100 greatest ever Britons in BBC poll, was executed and the Scottish king later demanded his crime be marked with an annual sermon.

This sparked the traditional Bonfire Night celebrations which include the burning of a 'Guy' effigy and the recital of a famous poem: 'Remember, remember the fifth of November Gunpowder, treason and plot.

'I see no reason why gunpowder, treason Should ever be forgot.'

Tower Hamlets council denied they had forgotten the Gunpowder Plot, but that the authority's tradition was to pick a different theme each year with the previous year an Olympic Theme and the year before that a Mexican-themed party.

A spokeswoman said: 'A spokesman said: 'It is utter nonsense to suggest the council has banned Guy Fawkes or is acting politically correctly in relation to bonfire night.'

'Last year 23,000 people had a lot of fun burning the House of Commons and a Guy Fawkes and this year we'll be having a lot of fun doing something different.'

Tower Hamlets, with a population of 196,106 is 51 per cent white, 33 per cent Bangladeshi, 3 per cent Black African and 3 per cent black Caribbean according to the 2001 census.

The borough has the highest percentage of Muslims in Britain at 36.4 per cent.

[Stoat]

BBC - h2g2 - Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night

Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night

Bonfire Night is celebrated across the UK on 5 November. The date marks the failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament by Guy Fawkes¹ along with a group of co-conspirators in London in 1605.

The intention was to kill King James I and wipe out everyone in government. The group were Catholic extremists who wanted to return England to the Catholic faith. One of the conspirators had a friend in the Houses of Parliament and sent a letter to him, warning him to stay away from the House on the day the attack was supposed to take place. The letter was intercepted and handed to the king.

Meanwhile, Guy Fawkes and friends, having formulated their plan, known as the 'Gunpowder Plot', had rolled 36 barrels of gunpowder into the cellars of the Houses of Parliament, and were waiting for the king to arrive when guards broke in and arrested them. They were tortured and executed.

Nowadays on Bonfire Night people organise their own parties or attend big organised fireworks displays. They stand around the bonfire, set off fireworks and eat lots of nice warming Bonfire Night foods, like sausages and jacket potatoes. They might also remark...

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot,
We see no reason,
Why gunpowder treason,
Should ever be forgot!

...Which sort of suggests that people rather admire the cheek of Guy Fawkes, trying to blow up Parliament, and that's why they celebrate Bonfire night, rather than celebrating the fact that his plot failed and he was caught!

Fireworks that are sent up on Bonfire night have really evocative names like, Roman Candles, Mount Vesuvius and Golden Shower. There are also Catherine Wheels that spin and Sparklers that children write their names in the air with.

Children make life-sized effigies of Guy Fawkes which are called Guys, to put onto the bonfires. The English have been burning effigies to mark Guy Fawkes' treason for almost 400 years. The tradition started in 1606, the year after the Gunpowder plot failed. In these first bonfires, called 'bone fires' at the time, it wasn't an effigy of Guy Fawkes that was burned, but one of the Pope. It was not until 1806, two centuries later, that the people started burning effigies of Guy Fawkes instead.

Children make a Guy by stuffing some old clothes with newspapers, craft a head out of material, and either draw a face on it or buy a special cardboard Guy Fawkes mask. For a few days beforehand children are pushing guys around in prams, push chairs and go-carts, saying 'A penny for the guy'. Adults then give them money - how much depends on how good the guy is. The money is then spent on sparklers, or at least it would be, if children were still allowed to buy fireworks in the UK, so it is probably spent on sweets instead.

---

¹ Also known as Guido Fawkes.
 

[AndyJackson]

Where is the sense of humor. A once a year sobering up of the politicians by reminding of their possible fate if they push things too far is probably healthy for a democracy.

[Tarnsman]

"V" for Vendetta plug. Great movie, once you get past it's obivious bias.

"Why won't you die?"

"Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy. And ideas are bulletproof."

[Straight Vermonter]

I read these stories about the UK and I can't help but think of the latter years of the Roman Empire. Rome became dominated by people from the provinces. These people thought of themselves as Thracians, Egyptians, Macedonians etc.

Rome had lost her identity, has the UK lost its identity as well?

[Roscoe Karns]

--

[Tanniker Smith]

This just in: The PC crowd has reached a compromise by renaming Guy Fawkes night with Gay Folkes Night, which insiders confirm that "after the bonfires are lit, it'll really be flaming!"

No comment about the Golden Showers.

TS

[paudio]

The move came under fire from George Galloway and campaigners.

Wow... even Galloway is against it.

[kalee]

I am beginning to doubt that "there will always be an England".

"Britons, awake!"
The empire too, we can depend on you.
Freedom remains. These are the chains
Nothing can break.

There'll always be an England,
And England shall be free
If England means as much to you
As England means to me.

[Future Snake Eater]

"England prevails!"

[Dick Bachert]

Along with Spain, France and Germany, Britian is GONE!!

Sorry, but since you DID, after all, mention “PC” in your post, you are simply the latest recipient of a newly discovered definition of the term, to wit:

Political Correctness:

”A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.”

By spreading this definition around, perhaps we can employ one of the more effective methods of deflating and defeating the fools who practice and promote it: RIDICULE.

Unless stopped – and soon – PC will DESTROY Western Civilization -- if it hasn’t already.

PASS IT ON!!