Foreign correspondent shares memorable English traditions
By Anastasia Brown · Foreign Correspondent
With the last Collegian edition having been a Halloween special, and with a range of other holidays just around the corner, I thought it might be of interest to report on the two uniquely British holidays I have witnessed in the past two weeks — Guy Fawkes Day on Nov. 5 and Remembrance Day on Nov. 11.
“Remember, remember! The Fifth of November – The gunpowder treason and plot.”
So begins a popular ditty that everyone in Britain seems to have memorized. Guy Fawkes Day is rooted in a historic act of treason. In 1605, a group of men led by a military captain named Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the entirety of Westminster Palace and the House of Lords, with the ultimate goal of replacing the ruling monarch, King James I, with a Catholic monarch.
Barrels of gunpowder were squirreled into the cellars and, as the aforementioned ditty describes it, Fawkes was caught in the nick of time, “with a dark lantern and a lighted match.”
Now, over 400 years later, the day is celebrated with (ironically) fireworks and bonfires that sometimes incorporate a ceremonial burning of a scarecrow meant to represent Guy Fawkes.
I didn’t spot any scarecrows, but I did see fireworks like it was the Fourth of July. Oxford has a unique tie to the event — the lantern that Guy Fawkes was carrying on that fateful day when he was caught trying to blow up Parliament can be seen in the Ashmolean Museum downtown.
One of my fellow American students asked an older British gentleman an insightful question about the holiday — do Brits see it as a remembrance of the salvation of Parliament and the king, or do they see it as a celebration of Guy Fawkes himself?
I couldn’t help but laugh at the man’s answer “Well, I don’t think anyone wanted Parliament to be blown up, but you simply have to admire the cheekiness of it all!”
This past Tuesday, Nov. 11, was a very different British holiday — Remembrance Day.
At the root, it is like our Memorial Day — an opportunity to reflect on the service and sacrifice of those who have died in the armed forces for our country.
But the traditions surrounding this day look nothing like any American holiday I have experienced. Starting weeks ago, volunteers have been stationed outside stores and on sidewalks distributing paper poppies, which many people have been wearing on their lapels every day since.
These bright pops of color on the rainy streets serve as reminders of the fields of Flanders, Belgium, after World War I, where the disturbed soil after the turbulent battles and bloodshed began growing astonishing quantities of poppies.
Paper and handcrafted poppies appear everywhere across the country — decorating churches, Christmas trees, hubcaps, storefronts. On the Sunday before the 11th, known as Remembrance Sunday, churches across the nation usually incorporate special prayers and moments of silence to remember the fallen and call for worldwide peace.
And on Nov. 11, there are national and local ceremonies as well as a nationwide “moment of silence” at 11:11 a.m. when all work and noise is supposed to be briefly halted.
It has been a highlight of my time abroad to see the differences in holiday traditions and experience entirely new holidays like these two. Now I am looking forward to attempting to make a full Thanksgiving dinner in a few weeks and introduce my new British friends to an American classic! Wish me luck on finding a turkey, though…
