sábado, 6 de novembro de 2010

Falando em datas comemorativas...

Yesterday was Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night in England. You never heard of it? I'll explain:

In 1605 many English people were not very happy with their King and his government, so a man named Guy Fawkes with some other friends decided to blow up the Houses of Parliament and consequently kill the King. The conspirators had 36 barrels of gunpowder ready to be used, but it seems that some of Fawkes' friends started to have second thoughts about it, and somebody wrote a  letter trying to inform the King about what was going to happen. The warning letter helped the king and they caught Guy Fawkes in time, with all the gunpowder in the cellar and tortured and executed him afterwards. In order to celebrate the King's safety, many bonfires were lit that  night, and since then English people have bonfires and fireworks every 5th of November.

Interesting, isn't it? Years ago Guy Fawkes was called a mercenary, nowadays he would be a terrorist, and although the date is very important it's not a public holiday in England, everybody works as normal, and in the evening they go to some schools, fields, pubs, wherever people are celebrating to watch the fireworks and the bonfire.  Does it remind you of Tiradentes Day in Brazil? Tee hee.

Um comentário:

  1. It's very interesting to know the culture of other countries!!!

    New expressions:

    bonfire - ok
    blow uu - ok
    barrels of gunpowder - ok

    TEE HEE -??????????????