Guy Fawkes’ Day

Why do people keep celebrating Guy Fawkes Day?

 

Like most Americans I had forgotten that the fifth of November is a day to celebrate a 17^th century Roman Catholic British rebel who tried to blow up parliament. Surprisingly, however, a fair number of my friends on Facebook reminded me of that fact, posting all sorts of different Fawkes-related status updates. Though many of my friends are in college and need only the slightest excuse to throw a mid-autumn bonfire, the periennial resurgence of Fawkes’ name made me wonder why people keep returning to him.

 

In the United States Guy Fawkes went mainstream as a result of the film V for Vendetta, which tells the story of a Fawkes impersonator living in the near future who tries to destroy a dystopian British government. Though a few British history buffs probably knew about him before the movie, the majority of this year’s November fifth celebrations date back only to 2006 when the movie came out. A select few may date back to the 1980s when Alan Moore’s graphic novel on which the movie was based came out, but that’s hardly any closer to the 17^th century. (If you’re one of the handful of Americans that knew about Fawkes before V for Vendetta pat yourself on the back for your erudition, but realize that that’s not evidence of Fawkes’ pre-1980s popularity.)

 

V for Vendetta is a great film (I haven’t read the graphic novel yet, but I hear it’s also good), but just because it’s well made doesn’t necessarily mean that watching it gives people any legitimate connection to Guy Fawkes. For all the typical viewer knows, Guy Fawkes could simply have been another fictional plot device. In other words, though Guy Fawkes happens to be real, he might as well have not been because almost no one (in the U.S.) knows anything about him beyond the movie.

 

Of course, the fact that most Americans who celebrate Guy Fawkes Day are doing so because of a movie isn’t a bad thing, but it is fairly rare. How many people do you know that watch a piece of media and suddenly initiate a holiday around that media? The closest phenomenon I can think of is Fesitvus, the made-up holiday popularized by Seinfeld. However, even Festivus celebrations are pretty rare these days and only happen among diehard fans, and then probably only because Seinfeld continues to air in syndication for several hours everyday. Accordingly, it’s surprising that three years after V for Vendetta—which was a hit but not an overwhelming one—it’s all-but-fictional holiday continues to receive recognition.

 

The robustness of Guy Fawkes celebrations suggests that there is something about the commemoration itself that fulfills people’s needs. If most American’s (at least initial) understanding of the day is based on V for Vendetta, then the day has rousing revolutionary origins. It’s about people overthrowing their oppressors and those celebrations that I’ve been to have played this aspect up to varying degrees. However, significantly, no one has ever actually begun a revolution after one of these celebrations. As far as I know, the movie also didn’t prompt much revolutionary action, despite the fact that it was considered a biting political allegory. (After watching the movie I felt ready to go fight a revolution myself, but within a few minutes that feeling had subsided. I had apparently got that feeling out of my system.)

 

My conclusion is that the revolutionary aspect of Guy Fawkes appeals to people because they are in some way dissatisfied with their (political) social structure, and that Guy Fawkes celebrations provide and outlet to vent such frustrations. Admittedly, a lot of people simply want to have a bonfire and burn an effigy, but it would be negligent to deny the connection between the celebration’s enactment and its historical connotation. (Whether historical in the sense of the original Guy Fawkes or V for Vendetta.) More insidiously, however, these celebrations also empower those very elements with which people are dissatisfied; much like watching the movie riled viewers up but also exorcised their need for revolution, so do Guy Fawkes celebrations.

 

It should be obvious where I’m going with this: subversion and containment. There is perhaps no other phenomenon that is a better illustration of subversive behavior being contained than Guy Fawkes Night activities. If Halloween illustrates this theory playing out with regard to people’s moral values, Guy Fawkes events are more socio-political, which is actually closer to Stephen Greenblatt’s original description of subversion and containment (in Elizabethan England).

 

Ultimately, these celebrations in the United States will probably disappear as people forget about V for Vendetta. However, their presence (along with that of the graphic novel and movie versions) reveals that there is indeed a revolutionary thread running through society. However, as long as people “remember, remember the fifth of November” that thread will likely continue to be contained.