How an Act of Terrorism Became a National Holiday in the U.K.

Just three months after the September 11 terrorist attacks, an Englishman named Richard Reid boarded an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami with a bomb in his shoe. Luckily, Reid was subdued by fellow passengers before he could detonate the bomb; the plane landed safely and Reid was brought to justice. So why don’t we celebrate December 22, 2001 as a national holiday? If you’re wondering why a thwarted act of terrorism would warrant its own holiday, look no further than Guy Fawkes Day, recognized on November 5 with bonfires, fireworks and burning effigies across the United Kingdom.

While a dozen other Catholic dissidents were equally involved in the “gunpowder plot” to blow up the Houses of Parliament, with the goal of killing King James I, only one man — Guy Fawkes — was caught in the cellar with 36 barrels of gunpowder on the morning of November 5, 1605. In honor of avoiding such an elaborate assassination attempt, Parliament later declared the day to be one of national thanksgiving and to this day, more than four centuries later, citizens are still celebrating Bonfire Night — festivities that originally carried an anti-Catholic sentiment.

These days the holiday has lost most of its initial intentions and is used as more of an excuse to set off fireworks, burn effigies of your least favorite politician or celebrity, and drink mulled wine than it is to give thanks that lives were saved hundreds of years ago (albeit lives of men who supported religious intolerance). I can only imagine that kids in the 21st century, dazzled by fireworks displays and amusement park rides, spare little thought for the original reasons behind the revelry.

For many around the world, Guy Fawkes is actually celebrated as a heroic figure whose visage is worn as a mask at global anti-government rallies including Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street. In recent years, an online activist movement called Anonymous has taken to the streets on Guy Fawkes Day with a Million Mask March to protest against current government. This year, the movement has planned 463 rallies worldwide. And of course Hollywood can never resist adding to the historical confusion, and did exactly that when they painted Guy Fawkes as a mysterious protagonist against a dystopian regime in the 2005 film “V for Vendetta” (based on the graphic novels from the 1980s).

Guy Fawkes Day isn’t the first holiday whose genesis is so buried in tradition that its meaning has largely been lost on recent generations. Memorial Day wasn’t created for barbecues, and Presidents Day isn’t just for sales — everyone needs an excuse to blow off some steam, but at what expense? So why should we “remember, remember, the fifth of November”? I think if we could rebrand the day to reflect a special effort between government and the people to bring important issues to the table, then there would be a continued reason to celebrate.

— written by Brittany Chrusciel