remember, remember THE FIREWORKS on 5 of November

This is probably a surprising kind of rant from somebody who spent several years studying Medieval & Early Modern History, and Tudor & Stuart History in particular. But I am getting really weary of the traditional celebrations of the Guy Fawkes night in England. It feels like every year there is a competition in neighbourhood – to see how many fireworks one is capable of setting off, say, in the matter of 10 minutes. While somebody is celebrating, you are interned in the four walls of your own house, feeling hot and brimming with headache. There is no point to try and open the windows, for the air somehow seems to be fresher in your house than in the street.

I think I already told the story of my coming to England precisely on November 5th 2002. A somewhat abrupt landing at Heathrow was outdone by our landing in Manchester, when the plane literally dropped down instead of landing gradually. A few Russian people sat next to me across the aisle, and one of them instantly phoned his relatives, and said jokingly:

“Hello, we’re OK, we’ve just fallen down. No, no, we landed, but it was like falling down”.

Needless to say, my head was pounding after such landing.

This year it went from bad to worse, particularly today. The astonishingly loud fireworks were intercepted by an even louder fugue of cars’ sirens. If I’m not mistaken, there were two or three cars involved. I’m being told that this was a long Guy Fawkes weekend because children go back to school on November 5th. Apparently, this means that my week of vacation that started on Friday evening, should not be spoilt any more.

But the question I’ve suddenly asked myself this evening is both strange and not, considering the fact that it comes from somebody who studied History. I know that sometimes most strange customs survive for centuries, and I am by no means attempting to discard the importance of the Gunpowder Plot or of the Guy Fawkes Night. What I am wondering about is exactly what is now being celebrated. So, Guy Fawkes didn’t get to blow up James I in the Parliament in 1605 – great. But it only took another 44 years for James’s son Charles to be executed in 1649. One king was saved, another wasn’t, so this is certainly not the reason for a festival. Perhaps, people are celebrating the fact that the magnificent Houses of Parliament weren’t blown up. Fair enough, but the Parliament that Fawkes was plotting to destroy had perished in the 1834 fire.

Obviously, it is impossible to forget the historical reason for the festivities held on November 5th. But upon looking – and smelling – those festivities, I feel it may be more appropriate to give them the name of the Fireworks Night. At least, such name will reflect the now spirit of the celebrations, which have evidently ceased to do with history.