"Remember remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder Treason and plot
I see no reason why the Gunpowder Treason
shall ever be forgot"
Ever since Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the Parliament House in London on November 5 1605, the fifth of November has come to symbolize iconoclasm, the act of destroying one's own cultural symbols in order to free up society from vestiges of corruption and enable it to move on into the future free from the burdens of the past.
Guy Fawkes was in fact trying to kick start a revolution, to free England from the ghost of (what else) religious rule. He found the best way to do that was to destroy England's most iconic building. I presume he thought that only a shock that powerful can jolt the sleeping masses back into reality. The reality being that England under religious rule was corrupt, oppressed, and hopelessly backwards.
In one sense Guy failed: His plot was exposed, thwarted. He he was captured, convicted, and of course hanged.
To add insult to injury, the Fifth of November became a mandatory yearly celebration of the survival of the King of England against the evil plotters. People would gather and sing songs about the glory of the King and the demise of Guy and his men.
But iconoclasm is very resilient, and as Victor Hugo once put it: No army can stop an idea whose time has come. England was due to abolish religious rule and enter a new age. What Guy had started in 1605 quickly became the English Revolution in 1649, followed by the Glorious Revolution in 1688, leaving the monarchy in England a symbolic but powerless establishment. England had moved on.
Ironically, what started as a yearly celebration of the King's victory continued on throughout the years, but eventually was renamed "Guy Fawkes Night", and became a celebration of the victory of Guy - not the King - and in that sense, Guy's plot in 1605 had definitely succeeded.
To me, the fifth of November is a celebration of iconoclasm, a day to remember the audacity of courage, and the need to throw away the old once it had rotten beyond hope, no matter how dear it is or how tempting it is to hold on to it just a little bit longer.
So are you ready?
So are you ready?
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