Guy (or Guido) Fawkes was a real person of Italian origin who was born in England in the year 1570 during a very unsettled period in English history. As almost everyone knows, Henry VIII of England (1509- 1547) married 6 times, and when he wanted to divorce his first queen, Catherine of Aragon, he broke with the catholic church and as a consequence of this event, the country gradually converted to Protestantism. Remember, remember, the fifth of November
I say ‘gradually’ because after the death of Henry when Catherine’s daughter Mary was crowned queen in 1553, she tried to revert the country to Catholicism. She reigned for only 5 years, and was succeeded by Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife. Elizabeth was very much in favour of Protestantism because she had been declared illegitimate by the Catholic Pope. She reigned from 1558 until 1603 and was followed by James I, who was also protestant.
But there were still people with catholic beliefs who wished for the country to once again become catholic. On the 5th of November in 1605, a group of Catholic conspirators of whom Guy Fawkes was the leader, tried to blow up the House of Lords while King James was inside the building. However, they were apprehended and eventually burnt at the stake as traitors.
Ever since then, on the 5th of November, the event is celebrated as a night on which bonfires are lit in every town and often in private gardens with a figure of Guy Fawkes (still called a ‘guy’) on top of the fire. This is accompanied by a firework display. But the ‘guy’ bears no resemblance to the wonderful figures of the Fallas. - he looks more like a scarecrow made of old clothes stuffed with straw.
In these modern times, it is possible that not many people could identify this event with the historical details. It has become just another tradition with any religious or political significance practically forgotten.
However, there is a rhyme which is still chanted at the time of the burning of the ‘guy’:
Gunpowder, treason and plot
We see no reason
Why gunpowder and treason
Should ever be forgot.
But it is now only an occasion for a winter ‘party’, with the bonfire to keep away the cold of a November night. When the fire has nearly burnt out, it has become a tradition to cook potatoes in the embers of the fire. The adults drink mulled wine (wine heated with spices) and also usually there is hot soup, sausages, sandwiches and - in these modern times, probably hamburgers.
But it is not a party Spanish style like the Fallas – it would finish well before midnight when the fire has turned to ashes, and certainly the best of the ‘Guys’ would not be as good as the worst of the figures in the Fallas.
Always the Valencianos have the best fiestas!
by Joan Franklin
