Guy Fawkes a spiritist?

by ozziepost 4 Replies latest jw friends

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  ozziepost

  For those of you not aware of English customs, a preliminary remark about a 'celebration' known as Guy Fawkes night in England. It's held on November 5th each year and is commemmorated by having a bonfire in the backyard with a 'guy' who is burned on top of the fire. The guy is usually a 'man' made of straw dressed in some old clothes or uniform. Around the fire, children dance and play and fireworks are lit. A great family occasion.

  Interestingly the WTS in its May 22 issue of the Awake! magazine terms this custom as having "spiritistic overtones", something to be avoided by Christians. This seems rather off the mark. Guy Fawkes was a man in previous ages who sought to blow up the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London with barrels of gunpowder. The plot was foiled and ever since effigies of Guy Fawkes have been burned around the country on the anniversary of his ill-fated deed. But "spiritistic"? Uh?

  Cheers,
  Ozzie

  "If our hopes for peace are placed in the hands of imperfect people, they are bound to evaporate."

  
  - Ron Hutchcraft Surviving the Storms of Stress
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  Prisca

  How weird.

  I was always under the impression we couldn't celebrate Guy Fawkes Night because it was a nationalistic celebration (politics and all that).
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  Princess

  Mulan printed out some information on Guy Fawkes day for me a couple of years back. It's on my birthday, she thought I'd get a kick out of how the English celebrate it.

  Princess
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  Nemesis

  I think the Watch Tower is just desperate for any JW not to look normal and have a good time (i.e., emulate those terrible ‘worldly’ people by being normal). I always went to firework displays when a JW, and know of many others who did, and still do. I don’t know why they have the stigma on Guy Fawkes Night. Maybe the Watchtower has a bad attitude because he was a Catholic convert, and we all know how much they hate Catholics!

  If you are ever in England on the 5th of November, make sure you go to a good bonfire, and fireworks display—surely a good opportunity to burn all those Watchtower mags!

  Here are two links I just found if anyone is interested in the history.
  http://www.innotts.co.uk/~asperges/fawkes/indexx.html (Several pages)
  http://www.britannia.com/history/g-fawkes.html

  PS. The poor guy paid for his gunpowder plot, he was hung, drawn, and quartered—Ouch! (In use at least until Tudor times in England. The victim is first hung by the neck but taken from the scaffold while still alive. The entrails and genitals are then removed and the torso hacked into four quarters.)
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  Francois

  I notice the WT does not eschew names of days of the week, or months, or avoids the use of tombstones, or the presence of the wedding party and the bride's veil, and on and on and fucking on. All of which most definitely have their origins in spiritism. Not convenient, I guess.