For folks unaware, today is Guy Fawkes Night (or Bonfire Night) in the UK. This is a celebration, held every 5th of November since 1605, of the failure of an attempted terrorist attack that tried to blow up both the government and King James I at the state opening of Parliament.
This day is probably known to many due to the comic/movie V for Vendetta, where the 5th of November Plot is used as a motif to provoke people against a fascist government, but the original plotters actually intended to overthrow democracy and install a Catholic theocracy.
Anyway, we celebrate it with lots of explosions and by burning lots of things, which kind of seems weird for a supposed celebration of those things not happening.
This holiday did also get celebrated in British colonies back in the day, but many have stopped since obtaining independence. No point celebrating the survival of a government you no longer side with.
In the US, George Washington specifically forbade the celebration of it in 1775, the last major event was 1776 in Boston, and the tradition died out entirely—devoid of much of its
original intention—in the mid 19th Century.
