Today is "Guy Fawkes Day". It's kind of weird that it has become "a thing" all over again.

Guy Fawkes was a part of a plot to assassinate King James I in 1605. He was in charge of guarding the gunpowder under the House Of Lords and was caught. He was then tortured and gave up the goods. He later killed himself by jumping off the gallows where he would have been hanged and ironically broke his own neck.  So the "5th Of November" was actually established as a day to celebrate Guy Fawkes failure. I guess you could extrapolate it to mean that if you ignore the will of the people, they'll take you out, but that didn't happen.

The Guy Fawkes mask was the repopularize in the 2005 movie "V For Vendetta". In that movie the main character is a bit more of hero, trying to save the heroine from a fascist futuristic state.  That, then takes us to the computer hacktivist group "Anonymous" who use the mask when they release videos.

These days the Guy Fawkes mask generally is used in anti-authority, antiestablishment activities, which is incredibly ironic, because the day based on his name was a victory for the status quo and not for Fawkes.  So, yes, I do remember the 5th of November. It really means the exact opposite of what most people think it means.

 

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