Remember remember...

the fifth of November is not a day to be missed in England. For all of you who haven't yet experienced V for Vendetta, let me shine some light on why there have been fireworks going off in Oxford for the past week, particularly last night and this evening. There's a poem recalled this time of year that goes something like this:
Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November
Gunpowder, Treason and plot
I see no Reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

Jonathan Kirkpatrick (my junior dean) offers the following explanation:
Bonfires are blazing all across the country this weekend, and the English have been purifying themselves as they face the bitter cold of November, symbolically destroying the dross of the year and expelling the evil within in the form of the burning man - a scapegoat, and a trace of the ancient tradition of human sacrifice that lurks within the depths of the nation’s Celtic soul: a liminal moment when winter is embraced, celebrated by this usually reserved people in a frenzy of explosions, acrid smoke, and expensive burgers of dubious composition.

Of course, anthropology aside, we are also celebrating one of the great non-events of English history, the failure of Guy Fawkes to blow up king and parliament in 1605. He was apprehended on the night of 4th November as he watched over nearly a ton of gunpowder stashed in subterranean Westminster, and now we English regularly and ritually rejoice to burn the man in effigy, year in, year out. Most passionate in this respect is the staid town of Lewes in southern England; here torch-lit processions escort the effigies of not only Guy Fawkes but also Pope Paul V to a fiery doom, along with optional extra effigies of anybody the good townspeople of Lewes feel is particularly deserving that year.

We celebrated the occassion with "gunpowder tea" (yes, that is actually the name of a particular type of tea) and I'm sure some of our students used it as an excuse for hitting up the pub. I may find my way over to the Ashmolean Museum, where the lantern Fawkes was holding when arrested in his cellar full of gunpowder under the House of Lords dwells. It was given to Oxford in 1641 by the son of a Justice of the Peace who had been present at the arrest, and it is apparently in remarkably good condition.

Gunpowder was traded for chili powder used in the fajitas I made this evening. So good. I can't even describe how great our family dinners are. Tomorrow Graden and Kelsey are up and then Pearson and Mikey again. Maybe we'll get some Rarebits again, or bangers and mash. Mmmmmmm.