GUY FAWKES DAY
The first annual day of thanksgiving was instituted in England long before the Pilgrims called for their Thanksgiving Day. On November 5, 1605, Guy Fawkes was captured standing guard over 36 barrels of gunpowder hidden in a vault under the House of Lords. He and his accomplices planned to blow up Parliament on its opening day, with the king, the royal family, the House of Lords, and the Commons in attendance. The leadership of England would be destroyed in one massive explosion. In this way the Catholic conspirators hoped to rid England of the disease of Protestantism! Does that sound like something we would read in today’s newspapers?
That the conspirators were discovered before any harm was done was certainly cause for thanksgiving. The traitors were arrested and executed, and parliament ordered November 5 to be kept as a “public thanksgiving to Almighty God.” This was to be an annual day of thanksgiving, “that unfeigned thankfulness may never be forgotten, and that all ages to come may yield praises to God’s divine majesty for the same.” Guy Fawkes Day continues to be celebrated in England.
If you could start your own national holiday, what would be the occasion and when?
Tags: thanksgiving
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