December 2002 Table of Contents

GUY FAWKES CELEBRATION

The PTA of St Francis de Sales School in Marsh Harbour literally fired off its fundraising activities for the year on the evening of 8th November with a blazing event: a Guy Fawkes celebration. Activities included a “guy” competition for best-made, best-dressed and most eligible for burning; food and drinks; games; the parading of the guys; and, to climax the evening, the burning of the guys. DJ N’ice of Radio Abaco provided music and Corporal Smith, Commodore of the All-Abaco Regatta, headed a panel of judges who determined the winner in the guy competition.

Before there was Hallowe’en there was Guy Fawkes,” said Barbara Johnson of the St Francis Pre-school and a teacher representative on the PTA executive committee. “Guy Fawkes was always a cultural event throughout the islands that involved the entire community, combining Junkanoo-style music and craftsmanship in the making of the guys, in an atmosphere of general good humour and poking fun.”

The tradition of Guy Fawkes is a throwback to British colonial days. Guy Fawkes was a conspirator who tried to blow up the British House of Parliament in 1605 with the king present in an effort to restore his religion to preeminence in England. He was arrested before he could set off the explosives, and hanged. Today he would be called a terrorist. The king he intended to kill was King James I of the King James Version of the Bible, which appeared in 1611. Down through the centuries Guy Fawkes has been burned in effigy on November 5th to celebrate the averting of what would have been a horrifying tragedy.

December 2002 Table of Contents