It's News Guys, But Not As We Know it!

[Ninurta]

6th November 2021. (The day after the UK's Guy Fawkes celebration!)
One has to wonder which UK community they ran this survey in!

Survey says 'almost one in ten young people think Guy Fawkes designed the fork'



'There will be fireworks galore all over Southend, Billericay, Basildon, Rochford and other parts of Essex this weekend.
But according to research carried out by Perspectus Global, 40 percent of young people are unaware that bonfire night
commemorates Guy Fawke's failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605.

The insights agency says it surveyed 1,500 young Brits, aged 16-29, and discovered although 92 percent celebrate bonfire
night every year, as many as 40 percent were unaware of the nature of the tradition.

The date showed almost a quarter (23 percent) thought bonfire night was a “pagan festival”, while a further 17 percent thought
it was a “traditional celebration to ward off evil spirits”. When it comes to the man himself, 74 percent said they had heard of
Guy Fawkes, however one in ten (10 percent) thought he was a fictional character, while seven percent thought he was famous
for being the inventor of fireworks.

Almost one in ten (seven percent) thought he had designed the fork, while six percent insisted, he was an MP.

The study also revealed 30 percent of youngsters think the gunpowder plot was an attempt to kill Henry VIII, while nine percent
thought it was an attempt on the life of Queen Elizabeth 1. For anyone who doesn't know and maybe wants to fill in their young
relative or friend about why they might be attending firework displays this weekend, you can let them know Guy (Guido) Fawkes
planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament on November 5,1605 at the state opening, in a bid to kill King James I and members
of the commons and the Lords.

Their plot was discovered the night before the grand opening when yeoman guards searched the cellars and Fawkes was discovered
with a fuse, lamp, box of matches and thirty-six poorly hidden barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes and his co-conspirators Robert Catesby,
Thomas Winter, Thomas Percy, and John Wright were arrested and taken to the Tower of London where they were tortured before being
hung drawn and quartered on January 30 and January 31 1606.

Ellie Glason, from Perspectus Global said: “It’s great to see how many Brits hold on to and celebrate time-old traditions such as bonfire
night, even if some aren’t entirely sure of the exact meaning.”


Also according to the survey, the majority of those quizzed (52 percent) had never heard of the tradition of Penny for the Guy, where
children would build their own “Guy” out of rags and old clothes...'

Echo News:

An interesting history lesson, but the part I highlighted in red appears to be inaccurate. Catesby, Percy, and Wright (and Wright's brother Christopher) were shot and killed in a shootout at Holbeche House on the border of Stafforshire on the morning of 8 November. With medical attention they might have survived, but "the baser sort" among the sheriff's men hurriedly stripped them of their clothes (Christopher's boots were pulled off to reach his silk stockings), and left them to die. Grant, Morgan, Rookwood, and Wintour were arrested. Percy was a brother in law of the Wright brothers, having married their sister Martha.

Although Catesby and Percy escaped the executioner, their bodies were exhumed and decapitated, and their heads exhibited on spikes outside the House of Lords.[113] On a cold 30 January, Everard Digby, Robert Wintour, John Grant, and Thomas Bates, were tied to hurdles – wooden panels[149] – and dragged through the crowded streets of London to St Paul's Churchyard. Digby, the first to mount the scaffold, asked the spectators for forgiveness, and refused the attentions of a Protestant clergyman. He was stripped of his clothing, and wearing only a shirt, climbed the ladder to place his head through the noose. He was quickly cut down, and while still fully conscious was castrated, disembowelled, and then quartered, along with the three other prisoners.[150] The following day, Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes, and Guy Fawkes were hanged, drawn and quartered, opposite the building they had planned to blow up, in the Old Palace Yard at Westminster.[151] Keyes did not wait for the hangman's command and jumped from the gallows, but he survived the drop and was led to the quartering block. Although weakened by his torture, Fawkes managed to jump from the gallows and break his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the gruesome latter part of his execution.[152][153]

Steven Littleton was executed at Stafford. His cousin Humphrey, despite his co-operation with the authorities, met his end at Red Hill near Worcester.[154] Henry Garnet's execution took place on 3 May 1606.[155]

Link

Gruesome stuff. I'm not sure why the Wright brothers were not dug up and decapitated like Catesby and Percy were. They were certainly a troublesome lot. As known recusants the brothers were on several occasions arrested for reasons of national security. Both were also members of the Earl of Essex's rebellion of 1601. Both were said to be excellent swordsmen. It might have gone better for them had they been better shots, but probably not - the sheriff had a posse of 200 men, pretty bad odds for muzzle loading weapons.

Being known as troublemakers is probably what brought us to the colonies.   


Regarding the bonfires and pagan celebrations, those folks may be partially correct. While Christian "Halloween" is celebrated on 31 October every year, and "All Saint's Day" the following day of 1 November, the actual date of the pagan Celtic Samhain festival fell this year on 5 November. It falls at the half-way point between the fall equinox and the winter solstice.

Are they saying that Guy Forkes is NOT the guy that invented forks? 


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