bonfire night?

[Joe Bento]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "bluesqueak" <pipdowns at e...>
wrote:

> Pip!Squeak:
> Remember, remember, the Fifth of November
> Gunpowder Treason and Plot
> There is no reason why gunpowder treason
> Should ever be forgot.
> {g}
> (There are lots of small variations on this song; that's the one I 
> know)
>

There's a lot of various verses to the song.  Here's one that is most
profound - one that relates directly to the Catholics, whose
mistreatment was the reasoning behind Guy's plot:

"Burn him in a tub of tar
Burn him like a blazing star
Burn his body from his head
Then we'll say the old Pope's dead"

I'm American, and went to a Catholic grammer school in California.  We
actually learned several verses of the song, and about the religious
persecution that existed in Britain at the time, especially between
the Anglicans and the Catholics.  I learned the "Remember, remember"
as you quoted it.

King James is also the one who had the Bible commissioned that is
perhaps the most well-known throughout the English speaking world.

Guy Fawkes Night, Bonfire Night, etc was also practised in early
Colonial America, and scattered areas of the USA still apparently
celebrate.  It was, for reasons I don't know, commonly referred to as
Pope's Night in America.  

What I'm curious to know is if this is a day everyone celebrates today
in Britain.  Would the Catholics, for example, participate in a
festival that was originally a sign of persecution against them?

Joe