Many New Zealanders do not know the backstory of Guy Fawkes Day, writes Rob Rattenbury. Photo / NZME
OPINION:
"Guy, Guy, Guy, penny for the Guy. If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do; if you haven't got a ha'penny, God bless you."
Another Guy Fawkes Day has rolled by. Fireworks, scared domestic pets, cats disappearing for days, and farm stock near towns distressed. For a day or two before and for days afterwards we are besieged by the sounds of fireworks, mostly set off by people old enough to know better.
It's a celebration of the execution of English Catholic terrorist Guy Fawkes in London on January 31, 1606. A very different time in a very different country.
On November 5, 1605, Fawkes was caught under the Houses of Parliament guarding a stash of gunpowder intended to be used to blow Parliament and King James I into oblivion when the opportunity arose.
This was supposed to set off the restoration of a Catholic monarch to the British throne.
Now, 416 years later and 18,390 kilometres away, some New Zealanders still celebrate the death of this religious fanatic. Fawkes and his co-conspirators have no connection whatsoever with 21st-century secular New Zealand. The last sectarian prejudices between Christians in New Zealand pretty much died out 50 years ago. Christian denominations are closer now than at any time since the Reformation.
So, why is there a need to celebrate Fawkes' execution here? Some will say it is our right, as our population includes many with British heritage. Really?
We are not a British nation; we are a Pacific nation peopled by literally hundreds of different cultures.
When I was small, the Guy chant used to wake up the neighbourhood in the town where I grew up. Children pushing homemade trolleys or old prams with a homemade dummy inside clothed in old garments - a makeshift Guy Fawkes - would go house to house asking for money, presumably to buy crackers.
They kept away from the Catholic homes because they knew the reception that awaited them. They were only children, but they would be told firmly yet kindly by a parent to be on their way.
You see, Catholic kids knew the story of Guy Fawkes, and knew he and his gang were acting wrong-headedly in trying to restore their faith to the throne of England. This all happened within 50 years of the Reformation.
We never saw the reason for a celebration of something that spelled the end of the open practice of our faith in Britain. But that was our problem to deal with - not the kids, many our mates, who were just having a good time.
I left my church behind years ago, a non-practising Christian. I still, to this day, do not know why we celebrate the death of a person who was fighting simply for religious freedom in his country, however wrong he may have been by our standards.
The day is still allowed in our politically correct time, which is really unusual. I am not sure what the attitude of the Catholic Church is to Guy Fawkes Day now, but it was a day that was simply ignored in our lives, both at home and at school, in the 1950s - almost a day of shame.
Many New Zealanders either just do not know the backstory to Guy Fawkes Day or, if they do, it's of no consequence to them, and just another chance to have some fun.
The occasion has no relevance to modern life in New Zealand and should be placed on the back-burner. We are supposed to be a religiously tolerant nation, yet some still celebrate the death of a misguided religious zealot from the Jacobean Age.
Here's the rub; our society would not tolerate New Zealanders celebrating deaths or tragedies in other religions by having bonfires and setting off minor explosives, scaring the willies out of older people and nearby animals.
Those two other peoples of the Book, Jews and Muslims, would not tolerate any such behaviour. They would be strident in their condemnation of such insensitivity. They would be in the national media, on the telly, decrying, quite rightly, such thoughtlessness.
So, why does a group of Christians have to still feel slightly marginalised once a year? They were not responsible for Fawkes' madness.
Here, other celebrations are becoming widespread such as Diwali, the Festival of Lights in the Hindu, Jan and Sikh faiths, a time of dancing and joy.
There are some things that must never be forgotten but, also, which should never be celebrated. The part of British history Guy Fawkes comes from shows no credit to those Catholics or Protestants. It was one of the bloodiest times in British history. Thousands of people of both faiths died what were often slow, miserable deaths in the name of Christianity and the madness of it all. Yet they worshipped the same God.