Explosions in London!

Am I kidding? No. Another terrorist attack? No. So, what's up then? The answer is: Guy Fawkes Night. In 1605, on November 5, the radical anarchist Guy Fawkes was arrested, caught red-handed with huge amounts of gun powder in a basement below the House of Lords... (I guess Homeland Security wasn't that clever) His comrades were revealed after he was tortured for days. The glorious session ended with poor Guy being "Hanged, drawn and quartered". I won't go to much in detail, other than that the hanging was stopped before he died... For the morbid minded, here's the explanation on Wikipedia.



Hey ho, and a barrel of.... err.... Rum?

To celebrate the failure, the fireworks rule the city until about now (23.00 in England) once a year on this date. The poem that pretty much sums up the events goes like this:

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
gunpowder, treason and plot,
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes,
'twas his intent
to blow up the King and the Parliament.
Three score barrels of powder below,
Poor old England to overthrow:
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, make the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
Hip hip hoorah!

I feel it is also in place here to add the rest of the poem, for some reason often excluded from the school books...

A penny loaf to feed the Pope.
A farthing o' cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down.
A faggot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar.
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head.
Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead.
Hip hip hoorah!
Hip hip hoorah!

Well, I guess that should do it for today. For some reason I remember a certain scene in the film Cold Mountain. Kabooom! For those who wants to read more on the subject, here are some links:

Wikipedia
The Gunpowder Plot Society (I wonder what they do the 364 other days of the year...)