Monday, October 30, 2006

Gunpowder Treason! Gunpowder!! Treason!! Yay!
Sunday, Nov 5 is Guy Fawkes Day. I would guess that few of you (except LeBon, of course) are familiar with the holiday, unless you recall the discussion this time last year. This year our annual bonfire/backyard burn-a-thon will be open to kids. I figured it was only fair, since our own little burninator will be present at the festivities.

We're having the party on Saturday so we can get to bed on time Snday night. Yes, we've become That Old That Quickly. In fact, I try to start getting into bed around 9pm. That way I'm usually able to nod off to sleep by 11:30 or so.

The bonfire will again feature hot dogs, s'mores, burgers, and anything else you can cook over flame. Aluminum cans, gummy bears, plastic army men, the usual stuff. At the end of the evening we burn the scarecrow effigy of Guy Fawkes to much native dancing and fanfare. A lot of beer is spilled.

One small point continued to irritate the proverbial skin, however, like a minor case of diaper rash: We and most of our friends are Catholic, and it's a little weird that a bunch of Catholics would celebrate Guy Fawkes Day by burning his effigy. Since, you know, he represented the Catholics trying to assassinate the Protestant government officials and all that jazz. We were bothered by this dissonance last year and resolved it by just burning more stuff and spilling more beer.

This year, the Catholics will have a voice. The Burninating Committee determined that we need a little cardboard model of Parliament, frosted and decorated with gumdrops like a gingerbread house. That will be a fun project for the kiddies, don't you think?

Then we dig, in the backyard, a teeny little basement underneath our sugar-sweet little Parliament and Big Ben. The kids can play out a puppet scene of a teeny little man in period clothing transporting a little miniature keg filled with gunpowder while old gentlemen in powdered wigs sip Brandy upstairs.

For the play's climax, a cleverly inserted match (GROWNUPS ONLY HERE, PLEASE!) will blow the place to smithereens.

The only question that remains is this:
Should we use
this one?
Or
this one?

5 comments:

PartnerInCrime said...

Just out of curiosity, have you guys seen "V for Vendetta" yet? LeBon & I both liked it, but I think I'll forever associate Guy Fawkes with that movie.

Alphagal said...

No, we haven't seen it. But you've got my curiosity up.

Diana said...

#2 seems much more close to what I assume is the real life structure, but it looks very complicated and after working that hard to put it together, it would be sad to distroy it. I vote for #1, alhough smaller in stature and less kewl, would be less emotionally scarring to distroy.
V for Vendetta is on my Netflix list but it just went from "now" to "short wait". I'm going to see Greg the Bunny instead.

Bashö said...

Maybe the Peace-Meister can work her Blockbuster magic and make V for Vendetta appear at either the Parliament construction site or the Parliament deconstruction site. I'm mainly ticked that I missed the natives dancing last year...

Alphagal said...

MyLittlePony will be bringing V for Vendetta to the bonfire festivities. I figure we can set up Baby Einstein DVDs up in the FROG for the little ones to watch, and V... in the living room for the grown-ups who are coming in from the cold.