La notte di Guy Fawkes – Guy Fawkes’ night

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Guy Fawkes ( York, 13 aprile 1570 – Londra, 31 gennaio 1606) è stato un militare e cospiratore inglese.

Noto anche sotto gli pseudonimi di Guido Fawkes (talvolta scritto anche Faux) e John Johnson, era membro di un gruppo di cospiratori cattolici inglesi che tentarono di assassinare con un’esplosione il re Giacomo I d’Inghilterra e tutti i membri del parlamento inglese riuniti nella Camera dei lord per l’apertura delle sessioni parlamentari dell’anno 1605, passato alla storia come la congiura delle polveri.
Il 5 novembre 1605 il complotto fu scoperto e i trentasei barili di polvere da sparo furono disinnescati. Da allora ogni 5 novembre i bambini del Regno Unito vanno in giro per il paese con dei fantocci, recitando una filastrocca che ringrazia Dio per aver salvato il re dall’attentato e a chiedere soldi ai genitori per comprare i fuochi per il falò, in cui vengono bruciati i fantocci nella simbolica ripetizione dell’esecuzione dei congiuranti. La celebrazione è nota con il nome di Guy Fawkes Night, ovvero la notte di Guy Fawkes.
Per solennizzare la scoperta della congiura, il 5 novembre 1605 i londinesi vennero incoraggiati ad accendere piccoli falò; per di più, un atto del parlamento (il cosiddetto Thanksgiving Act) istituì in quella data il «giorno del ringraziamento». Benché fossero tredici i cospiratori coinvolti nella congiura delle Polveri, nell’immaginario collettivo il complotto è rimasto associato al solo Fawkes.

Nel Regno Unito, il 5 novembre è noto con diversi nomi, quali Guy Fawkes Night, Guy Fawkes Day, Plot Night e Bonfire Night; i falò iniziarono ad essere accompagnati, dal 1650 in poi, dall’accensione di fuochi d’artificio, fino a quando dopo il 1673 divenne usanza bruciare un’effigie (generalmente rappresentante Fawkes o il Papa), che andava a finire nelle fiamme tra le grida di «No popery!».

Sebbene per quasi tre secoli Guy Fawkes sia stato considerato personaggio ridicolo e meritevole di scherno, il culto della sua figura venne vivificato nell’Ottocento dalla pubblicazione del romanzo storico Guy Fawkes, or; The Gunpowder Treason, in cui William Harrison Ainsworth guardò al congiurato sotto una luce nuova, comprensiva, quasi empatica;[20] da quel momento in poi, Fawkes fu celebrato quale «eroe d’azione» in moltissime opere, principalmente libri per bambini, quali The Boyhood Days of Guy Fawkes e The Conspirators of Old London.[21] Secondo lo storico Lewis Call, Fawkes oggi è «un’icona considerevole nella cultura politica moderna», con la sua faccia divenuta a partire dalla fine del Novecento «uno strumento potenzialmente potente per l’articolazione dell’anarchismo postmoderno». La popolarità conosciuta di Guy Fawkes a partire da quegli anni è ben attestata dalla maschera di V in V for Vendetta, plasmata sulle fattezze del suo volto.

La notte di Guy Fawkes - Guy Fawkes' night

Guy Fawkes ( 13th April 1570 – 31st January 1606),also known as Guido Fawkes

Fawkes converted to Catholicism and left for mainland Europe, where he fought for Catholic Spain in the Eighty Years’ War against Protestant Dutch reformers in the Low Countries. He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England without success. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England, and Wintour introduced him to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters leased an undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder which they stockpiled there. The authorities were prompted by an anonymous letter to search Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and they found Fawkes guarding the explosives. He was questioned and tortured over the next few days, and he finally confessed.

Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes fell from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of being hanged, drawn and quartered. He became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, the failure of which has been commemorated in Britain as Guy Fawkes Night since 5 November 1605, when his effigy is traditionally burned on a bonfire, commonly accompanied by fireworks.
Guy Fawkes Day, also called Bonfire Night, British observance, celebrated on November 5, commemorating the failure of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

The Gunpowder Plot conspirators, led by Robert Catesby, were zealous Roman Catholics enraged at King James I for refusing to grant greater religious tolerance to Catholics. They planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster) during the state opening of Parliament, intending to kill the king and members of Parliament in order to clear the way to reestablishing Catholic rule in England. The plan failed when the conspirators were betrayed. One of them, Guy Fawkes, was taken into custody the evening before the attack, in the cellar where the explosives to be used were stashed. The other conspirators were all either killed resisting capture or—like Fawkes—tried, convicted, and executed. In the aftermath, Parliament declared November 5 a national day of thanksgiving, and the first celebration of it took place in 1606.
Today Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated in the United Kingdom, and in a number of countries that were formerly part of the British Empire, with parades, fireworks, bonfires, and food. Straw effigies of Fawkes are tossed on the bonfire, as are—in more recent years in some places—those of contemporary political figures. Traditionally, children carried these effigies, called “Guys,” through the streets in the days leading up to Guy Fawkes Day and asked passersby for “a penny for the guy,” often reciting rhymes associated with the occasion, the best known of which dates from the 18th century:

Remember, remember, the fifth of November
Gunpowder treason and plot
We see no reason
Why Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot….

Fireworks, a major component of most Guy Fawkes Day celebrations, represent the explosives that were never used by the plotters. Guards perform an annual search of the Parliament building to check for potential arsonists, although it is more ceremonial than serious. Lewes, in southeastern England, is the site of a celebration of Guy Fawkes Day that has a distinctly local flavour, involving six bonfire societies whose memberships are grounded in family history stretching back for generations.

Fonte: Wikipedia

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