Yes, it was Guy Fawkes Night. This special holiday in Britain celebrates terrorism against the government and promotes the burning of Catholic effigies on bonfires.
On November 5, 1605, an English Catholic named Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the House of Lords and King James I and all his family. He was caught with kegs of gunpowder ready to light the fuse. Having been betrayed by a confederate, Fawkes was arrested, tried and hung in 1606.
Imagine that! They gave a terrorist caught red-handed trying to murder the king a trial!
Okay, they also tortured Fawkes. But by authorising the torture the King became hated as a tyrant and raised public sympathy for those tortured as martyrs.
Fawkes now ranks 30th on the list of 100 greatest Britons and is regarded as "the only man to ever enter Parliament with honorable intentions."
Americans would also burn Catholics on November 5th if it weren't for George Washington's passionate determination to foster religious tolerance in the young republic.
For many decades that followed, the English government used Fawkes to inflame public hatred against Catholics and justify government oppression. Celebration of Guy Fawkes Night often included targeting Catholics living in the neighbourhood and humiliating or beating them for fun.
Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder, treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, ’twas his intent
To blow up the King and 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!
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 hoorah!
The young United States might well have continued the tradition had it not been for George Washington. Scott Horton provides this confirmation that Washington was very special in his determination to foster tolerance and diminish the role of divisive hatreds as a fuel for government oppression and concentration of power:
America was involved in a struggle for its liberty, and the commemoration of Guy Fawkes stood for the opposite: government by fear, oppression of a minority, a celebration of arbitrary power. Guy Fawkes Day was the abnegation of the essential values of the Revolution. So the original George W. put it in an order: no more Guy Fawkes Day.
Order in Quarters issued by General George Washington, November 5, 1775:
As the Commander in Chief has been apprized of a design form’d for the observance of that ridiculous and childish custom of burning the Effigy of the pope–He cannot help expressing his surprise that there should be Officers and Soldiers in this army so void of common sense, as not to see the impropriety of such a step at this Juncture; at a Time when we are solliciting, and have really obtain’d, the friendship and alliance of the people of Canada, whom we ought to consider as Brethren embarked in the same Cause. The defence of the general Liberty of America: At such a juncture, and in such Circumstances, to be insulting their Religion, is so monstrous, as not to be suffered or excused; indeed instead of offering the most remote insult, it is our duty to address public thanks to these our Brethren, as to them we are so much indebted for every late happy Success over the common Enemy in Canada.
America, it was settled, would mark the old Guy Fawkes Day with a new tradition: the exercise of the Democratic Franchise. It was to be the day on which the rulers are held accountable to the people.
As it is now celebrated in multi-cultural, multi-religious Britain, everyone - including Catholics, Muslims and Hindus - uses Guy Fawkes Night as an excuse to let off fireworks in the back yard and burn all the rubbish they clear out of the garden and garage. The BBC says that the fire service had a busy night, but nothing violent or mean spirited.
My boys and I had a lovely walk around the neighbourhood in the dark, enjoying the fireworks exploding over neighbours' gardens in the clear night sky.
Those most at risk of a fiery death last night were hedgehogs.