. . . the fifth of November. The burning of the effigy of Guy Fawkes, which reminds me of the burning of Zozobra in Santa Fe in the fall, the burning of Old Man Gloom, the burning of one's sorrows and gripes for another year.
There's something in our collective psyche which requires such a burning.
I'm reminded of Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native, which ends on Guy Fawkes—or Bonfire— Night.
The function of Bonfire Night in the text is to mark the "death" of summer and defy the gradual darkening of the season. As Thomas Hardy observes, the holiday “indicates a spontaneous, Promethean rebelliousness against the fiat that this recurrent season shall bring foul times, cold darkness, misery and death.”
images: Guy Fawkes Effigy, William Warby
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