Saturday Aesthetic Expression: Guy Fawkes Day

Editing error- Post written by Joey on Brittany's account.  We're so "one" we write for each other now!

Today is celebrated throughout Great Britain as "Guy Fawkes Day".  When you think of Guy Fawkes, what do you think of?  As an American the only thing that comes to mind is fireworks (well, that or V for Vendetta)

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But why on earth do those Brits set off explosions on Guy Fawkes?  Cause that's what he did, well...tried to do.

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Guy Fawkes was a convert to Catholicism after his mother married a Catholic when his father died when he was 8 years old.  But he lived in England when being a Catholic was not exactly safe.  So he moved to Spain for awhile and fought for the Catholic Spainards during the 80 years war before returning home to try and "replace" Queen Elizabeth with a Catholic monarch and return England to the Church.  Well, that kind of backfired- with imprisonment, torture and execution.

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Anyway, we're Catholic, and not so fond of all the bad things Queen Elizabeth and her ilk did to British Catholics like Fawkes, St. William of York and countless other untold martyrs for the Faith. Today the protestant Brits celebrate his defeat by burning effigies of the Guy Fawkes and of the Pope, but that's crazy cuz the Pope is great. Queen Elizabeth on the other hand was a bit of a tyrant.

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And you know what they say in ol' Virginny (where Brittany hails from), "Sic Semper Tyrannis" or in other words:"thus always to tyrants" or in other, other words "this is what yer tyrannical ways'll get ya".

I made our effigy of Queen Elizabeth, though before the addition of the portrait of Elizabeth (printed draft quality of course) it was running precariously close to being a little too blair witchy. I dunno, you be the judge.

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In addition to the creation of the effigy, we also decided to rewrite the traditional Guy Fawkes Day children's rhyme:

Remmember remember the fifth of November

revolution and freedom besought.

I see no reason why tyranny's season

Should ever be forgot...

So yea... there is a long tradition of exacting vengence upon those whom you revile or, in the least irritate you, throughout art history. You don't have to know a lot about the interpersonal relationships of Michaelangelo to guess that the fella he painted in hell with the ears of an ass and a snake biting him was probably not "besties" with the famed sistine chapel painter.

 

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Symbolism is such a great thing. I mean, its way better to paint a guy with a snake biting his "special area" than it is to punch him in the face. Less violent, and a vengence that lasts the ages. That guy is long dead, but everyone is still quite clear of how Michaelangelo felt about him.

 better to burn in these fires than in the eternal ones

Similarly with Queen Elizabeth, I'd much rather burn an effigy of her to abate my personal vengeance and pray for her soul to be spared from God's Justice by His Mercy than the alternative.