Catholics who live in the UK: What do you think of Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night?

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I’ve heard it’s the British equivalent to Halloween (although I know there are many differences), yet Halloween is based off of a Catholic holiday and many Catholics participate in Halloween, whereas Guy Fawkes Night is specifically targeted against Catholicism and is known for its anti-Catholicism by Protestants and very patriotic English people. What do our fellow English Catholics do on such a day? Do any Catholics, ignorant to its meaning possibly, partake in any celebrations? What do you do in areas that have big celebrations compared to ones that have lesser celebrations?
 
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I have wondered the same thing myself. I guess patriotic Brits and protestants celebrate the plot failed. How is it for Catholics in England during this holiday? Is it also celebrated in Australia, New Zealand and Canada?
 
Guy Fawkes night is about Catholics? With all the folks with Guy Fawkes masks on the interwebs, I thought it had to do with hacking

I hope everyone knows I’m kidding.
 
Not in Canada, no. Halloween is big here though. I find that Australia tends to be more “British” while we are half way between British and American culture.
 
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I think (broadly speaking, I’m not including an infinitesimally-small number of turnip-witted bigots), any genuine anticatholicism in Guy Fawkes’ Night has long since been lost.

What remains is very occasional, very obvious and deliberate sarcasm or irony - in the way that British humour often works: ‘Happy Catholic Persecution Day!’ someone wished me on the Saturday!

Of course, historically, it was rather different. When in 1850 Pope Pius IX restored the Catholic hierarchy - ie bishops - to England, for example, (the matter made worse by rather poorly-timed grandstanding statements by the newly-created Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman in early November), he - and the Pope - were burned in effigy along with the usual Guy, on the night of the 5th.

Meanwhile until some time in the 19th century (forget the year it was abolished), the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer contained liturgy for a special service of thanksgiving to be held annually on November 5th, including prayers for the deliverance of the King, Lords, Church, and Commons from “Popish treachery” and elsewhere referred to the “secret contrivance and hellish malice of Popish Conspirators.” (I can’t condone the entire sentiment, of course, but no one could deny that prayer books once upon a time had a much more thrilling turn of phrase!).

However, one should point out that what Robert Catesby and his co-conspirators planned to do (and not even getting into the fact of it being domestic terrorism!) - was simply turn the status quo on its head, and ultimately create an environment ripe for the persecution of Protestants (as had been previously been experimented with under Mary I). We probably shouldn’t feel too sorry regarding the conspirators’ fates.
 
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Having been to two fireworks parties this weekend I completely agree. It is a MUCH more British festival than an imported, highly commercialised Haloween
 
They were caught, tortured and executed horribly by the Protestants
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Could make an historical argument that no - they were caught, tortued and executed horribly by the state. The fact they were Protestants (well, Anglican anyway 😉 ), is almost by-the-by. I’m probably just being extraordinarily pedantic, but while in the wake of the Gunpowder Plot there were enacted fresh anti-catholic penal laws, actually a number of Catholics continued to have influence at court, certainly were not persecuted quite as ‘badly’ as they could have been around the country, given the circumstances. And James I was certainly happy to try and have his eldest (then, when he died, younger), son, marry a Spanish infanta. (Charles I, James’ younger son, of course, ended up marrying the equally-Catholic Henrietta Maria of France, instead).
 
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I think it is often forgotten that Henry VIII broke with Rome, not with the Catholic faith and that Anglicanism professes to be a Catholic denomination, the great theological debate took place much more on the Continent.
 
People should be made aware of anti Catholic undercurrent to bonfire night! If we were celebrating Muslim defeat the liberals would meltdown
 
SusanneT said:
I think it is often forgotten that Henry VIII broke with Rome, not with the Catholic faith and that Anglicanism professes to be a Catholic denomination, the great theological debate took place much more on the Continent.
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And especially, at least for half the CofE, since the 19th century Anglo-Catholic revival.
 
LumberJack said:
Nowadays the effigy on the bonfire typically isn’t Guy Fawkes. After 9/11 it was Osama Bin Laden. This year a village, annoyed because they had poor mobile phone service from BT, burnt a giant BT mobile phone.

Terrorism and violence are still rife 400 years later so the evening is still as relevant with few, if any, thinking anti-Catholic thoughts.
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I think that everyone needs every so often a way to ‘let off steam’, hence the much-to-be-welcomed (in my opinion) transformation of a deliberately anti-Catholic festival into a which-idiot-politician/businessman/company/etc-has really-cheesed-us-off-this-year event.
 
I think it’s something less reported on that although Henry broke with Rome, he remained Catholic throughout his life (or as much a Catholic as one can be after breaking with Rome…). Most Protestant changes were actually made by his son, Edward VI.

As for Bonfire Night (I’m not Catholic, but I do live in the UK), it’s really just a night to go and see some fireworks. Although people do know the history behind it, as EleanorArr says, any genuine anti-Catholic feeling has long since been lost. What happens on Bonfire Night? In my experience, eat toffee apples, wave around a few sparklers, see a bonfire being lit and watch some fireworks. I’d assume that’s pretty standard.
 
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Brit here. As a kid growing up in the 60s, Halloween was a minor thing (certainly kids didn’t dress up then), and we tended to call it Mischief Night - we went around playing little practical jokes on neighbours, like knocking on the door and running away or lifting their gates off (carefully). We made lanterns out of swedes or turnips, not pumpkins (never even saw a pumpkin as a kid, it wasn’t a common vegetable). There was no Trick or Treating, that’s come over from the USA in the last 20 years.

Bonfire Night was a much bigger thing, and we had a bonfire in the garden, we made a guy from old clothes stuffed with newspaper and dad bought a box of fireworks (we weren’t a Catholic family). Nowadays, I suspect a lot of young people wouldn’t be able to tell you the origins of it all and I don’t know how many families would make a guy. Fireworks have got louder and bigger, and we’ve had them going off in surrounding gardens for the last three nights (and two of my dogs have been terrified, unfortunately).
 
So nice to read so much from people who actually read their history !!
 
Yet in Lewes to this day they still burn an image of The Pope
 
It does here. The fireworks actually started on the weekend (Oct 27 on).
 
I still remember the fireworks we saw near Battersea Park. Truly astonishing.
 
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