bonfire night?

[Richard Smedley]

> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Joe Bento" wrote:
>> 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?

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "bluesqueak" wrote:
> Well, I was educated in a Convent school, so the answer is
> probably 'yes'. But frankly, Guy Fawkes is remembered in popular
> British lore simply as a traitor - the man who tried to blow up
> Parliament. It's generally only when kids study the origins of
> Bonfire Night that they find out that the Catholic/Protestant wars
> were behind the treason.

Hmm, I grew up (in the 60s and 70s) taught that Guy Fawkes
was something of a hero, for nearly destroying parliament :-)

Most people I know today seem to hold similar views, and I
remember seeing posters up in Liverpool at this time of
year in the 1980s saying ``Guy Fawkes - the only sane man
to enter parliament'' accompanying a lino-cut picture of
the man.

Of course few people I know actually want to *kill*
politicians, it's just that whichever way you vote, you
always end up with a government :-/

 - Richard

\Me returns to reading about the religious wars of the
fourth century :^)

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