Guy Fawkes Day Festivities Still Controversial

In England, November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, marking the foiling of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot that occurred during the long-running religious battle that followed Henry VIII’s break from Rome in 1534. A dozen Catholics were caught preparing fuses to blow up London’s Westminster Palace with barrels of gunpowder. The Toronto Star on Saturday reported on the somewhat controversial festivities that take place each year in Lewes, England to mark Guy Fawkes Day. 50,000 people converge on the town to mark Bonfire Night. In a carnival-like atmosphere, with a “No Popery” banner strung across the town’s main road, Pope Paul V, who reigned at the time of the plot, is burned in effigy. When, as this year, Nov. 5 falls on Sunday, the anti-Catholic celebrations are rescheduled to take place a day earlier.