What Is Guy Fawkes Day (and Who Is Guy Fawkes)?
5 November – Guy Fawkes Day in the UK – a national holiday that perpetuates a plot by a revolutionary group to blow up parliament and overthrow the government. But who was Guy Fawkes? And why is there a day in his honor? Let’s explore.
Guy Fawkes, 1605 “The Gunpowder Plot”
Guy Fawkes was part of a group of 13 accomplices who orchestrated the Gunpowder Plot – a plan to blow up the British Palace of Westminster, where Parliament sits, and assassinate King James I in order to restore the Catholic monarchy. The group planted 36 barrels of gunpowder under the palace, although experts do not know how much damage this would have caused to the building.
The plot, set for November 5, was uncovered and Fawkes was captured, tortured and sentenced to death for high treason, when in fact he died by suicide minutes before his execution. But although his name was the epitome of this event, Fawkes was not really the head of the conspiracy.
What is this poem “Remember, remember, November 5th”?
John Milton’s 1626 poem in Quintum Novembris mentions the Gunpowder Plot:
Remember, remember, November 5th
Gunpowder treason and conspiracy
I don’t know the reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
I must forget sometime.
You may have first heard the phrase in the trailer for the 2006 film V for Vendetta (more on why in a minute), but the poem is usually recited during Guy Fawkes Day celebrations in modern-day Britain, which typically include bonfires, stuffed animals and fireworks. … Guards are also conducting a symbolic search of Westminster Palace for arson threats.
Where have I seen this mask before?
Guy Fawkes has appeared quite frequently in pop culture. Its essence was immortalized in the graphic novel V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd in 1988, in which the protagonist is an anarchist revolutionary who wears a Fox mask and conspires to destroy a fictional fascist state. According to the plot in 2006, the film of the same name was filmed with Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman in the lead roles.
The famous Guy Fawkes mask from the comics has since been used as a symbol of mass protests and anti-establishment movements. The hacktivist collective Anonymous adopted the mask during the group’s attacks on the Church of Scientology in 2008 – a mask worn by supporters during demonstrations across the country. The mask was also used by the Occupy movement. Although Guy Fawkes was once described as a traitor or terrorist, he (or at least a mask) is now advocating action against government corruption or corporate greed.
This story was originally published in November 2020 and updated on November 4, 2021 to follow the Lifehacker style guidelines.