Remember, remember! The fifth of November! The Gunpowder treason and plot!

Lewes residents were set to burn the Cameron effigy as part of their November 5 celebrations in honor of would-be assassin Fawkes’ failed attempt to blow up Parliament in 1605. The bill making it so, the “Observance of 5th November Act”, was introduced by Puritan lawmaker Edward Montagu in January 1606 and included a reference to the “malignant and devilish papists, Jesuits, and seminary priests” he believed responsible for the plot.

However, Fawkes and the rest of the plotters weren’t fighting for freedom.

Yet – you may have seen the movie “V for Vendetta”.

The Independent recalls that the night of Guy Fawkes Day is called Bonfire Night, and today is the day for that celebration.

“I know you’re familiar with the “Anonymous” mask during the Occupy Wall Street” protest movement.

It is true that since 1534 – when Henry VIII declared himself the head of the Church – Catholics had faced persecution in England, and the Gunpowder Plot was in, many ways, a response to that persecution.

So, how and why is Guy Fawkes the poster guy for rebels everywhere? Fawkes, one of 13 conspirators against the crown, was caught beneath the House of Lords with dozens of barrels of gunpowder. Red cheeks, thin lips under his beard, mustache and broad smile curled up ends with Guy Fawkes mask, designed for the first time in V for Vendetta by David Lloyd. It may seem like a uniquely British phenomenon, but it wasn’t always so; in fact, Bonfire Night was once celebrated on the other side of the pond too. “Behind the masks, protesters are united”. Most are generally doing this out of a sense of fun or history, but after all, the day just started with a misguided plot to take down a king, and poor Guy Fawkes, perhaps the original patron saint of lost causes, had a plot that ended badly.