V for Vendetta & Nov. 5th

[G2099]

# November 5 - Gunpowder Plot: A plot by to blow up the English Houses of Parliament is foiled when Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, finds Guy Fawkes in a cellar below the Parliament building and orders a search of the area. About 20 barrels of gunpowder were found and Fawkes was arrested for trying to kill King James I of England and the members who were scheduled to sit together in Parliament the next day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot

Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night, Fireworks Night and Plot Night, is an annual celebration (but not a public holiday) on the evening of the 5th of November primarily in the United Kingdom, but also in New Zealand, South Africa, the province of Newfoundland (Canada), and formerly in Australia. It celebrates the failure of the Gunpowder Plot, in which a group of Catholic conspirators attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London on the evening of 5 November 1605, when the Protestant King James I (James VI of Scotland) was within its walls. Some believe the nearness of the event to the pre-Christian festival of Samhain Eve and Halloween is significant, but it is generally agreed that this is a coincidence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night

[bananas]

1. live cats were placed in the effigies to make sound effects as they bu

"For centuries, live cats were tied up and placed in the interiors of the effigies to make desirable sound effects as they burned. Eventually the practice of including cats was discontinued."

[Lisa]

2. the practice of making a "Guy" from old clothes, and going door-to-door

... collecting contributions of small change from the neighbours (to buy firecrackers), is described in the "Paddington Bear" books. I was puzzled by this when I read them as a child, but British family friends explained it to me. Kind of like trick-or-treating over on this side of the Atlantic. In parts of Canada, "Fireworks Night" made a quick transition to Halloween, and my dad recalls predominantly-British parts of Vancouver letting off firecrackers on Oct 31st, in the 1920s and 30s. (I live in another BC city, and we have a neighbour who insists on hand-holding Roman candles, every Halloween .... one of these days he'll be spending the night at Royal Jubilee Hospital, or worse!)