We are very proud of our new rosette pin click here

New! The First Celebration- read the first sermon preached to James II  This work is important as it sets the tone for celebrations that follow including our own! Soon we shall have a commentary.

The Military of the Day Join us as we explore the military of 1605. Soon we sshall have the complete derill for the Pike- so get yours ready.
 

You will find many more Bibliography entries- Enjoy!: Just Click Here

We have a bigger Nutshell...Coverage of the story of the plot has increased. Visit the Plot in a Nutshell to read on...click here.

More Bonfire Society information and links click here

The Center takes ther lead in expanding purpose for celebrating the 5th. The day has always been celebrated as a day for giving thanks for our deliverance from terror.  Now as never before this thanksgiving becomes real. Join us as we give thanks and remember the victims of worldwide terror click here.

1998- Expanding the Coverage of Celebration

New! Our Analysis and Resources for the study of Celebration of the Plot through the Ages The analysis section is in the early stages. We hope to expand on this by adding the texts of a few of the important sermons. You will find wonderful primary accounts of celebrations and activities,poems and many writings. 

New! Chants! Visit our chants page for lots of new chants from the folklore of the British Isles- Great for partys and celebrations.

New! More Bonfire Societies Listed Stop in and visit celebration at its source! 

New! Learn how to make authentic torches! Get Authentic!

New! Organizational aids Yes time came for new main menues- they were just getting too big. So we broke them into several topical groupings. You can still use the remote control and the specific page index at the bottom of each and every page.

To our suprise 1997 was a good year for growth.

We added the content of a solid image collection but mainly we branched out in quality.  An extensive spelling chech and factual update was done in early November and illustrations were provided to a new  description of pit cooking.  We have made greater use of innovative technologies such as Java Scripts and now VRML. We now have a place where a Java script prints out another famous event of November 5 and two places where two different scripts calculate the days left to Guy Fawkes Day- I hope you will check on them frequently! 

Next year we hope to provide a few more details and facets to our historical description. We hope you will use our new listserve and our chat channel to help us include information or sources which have not yet been encorporated.  I list the new aspects of the page below- stop in from time to time to check on updates. 
New!Now Hear  This!  (true speech audio)! A motivational introduction from the 1st trial Indictment  by Sir Edward Philips, Knight. (get true speech viewer here)New!But thats only your opinion!what would the Plotters say about it? Ok-Go ahead and ask them!Via Java script-Mr Fawkes,Fr.Garnet and King James INew! I like Pictures-do you have any? Images of the Plot - New! And the Pope Knew? The Papacy of the Plot- 
What are these "Bonfire Societies? How do I make a "Guy"- I want to make a good fire How? Bonfire Societies,Guys and Bonfires! Send us your Pictures!. 
New!So  This stuff is real-almost too real! Do you have anything that is just virutally Real?
Yes! This is a VRML-Alegorical world representing the plotters and the Government.Be sure to back up and take a long distance view-You can even see the author in the stocks! It should make a great opera set! Yes it takes a while to load -Hey its a whole world! (worth the wait!) If you don't have a VRML viewer go get one it is free click here
New!So You think you know  something now!
A   Test  of your Knowledge of the Plot! 

Will the real Guy please stand up!

Guy:

Eric Partridge, Origins, Macmillan, New York,1959

          Guy Fawkes Day is still celebrated with fireworks and bonfires. Children parade through the
          streets carrying effigies called guys and asking passersby for "a penny for the guy." The
          guys, which are dressed in rags, are burned on the bonfires on the night of November 5th.
          The effigies were not always those of Guy Fawkes; in the early days, figures of other
          unpopular people, especially the pope, were also paraded through the streets and burned on
          the bonfires. 

          So, guy originally referred to an effigy of Guy Fawkes or some other detested person. Trollope
          wrote in The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867): "What are you doing there, dressed up in that
          way like a guy?" Because the guys were dressed in old, ill-matched clothes, the word also
          came to mean 'a person of grotesque appearance or dress': "The gentlemen are all 'rigged
          Tropical' -- grisly Guys some of them turn out" (Julia Charlotte Maitland, Letters from Madras
          during the Years 1836-39 by a Lady). The word had a pejorative sense through much of the
          19th century: "I wouldn't speak to you in the street for fear of disgracing you; I am such a
          poor little guy to be addressing a gentleman like you" (C. Reade, Hard Cash, 1863). A guy was
          a person who was an object of ridicule. 

          The word guy crossed the Atlantic late in the 19th century and, in American usage, came to
          mean simply 'a fellow' or 'a man': "You're the guy that had the fight in that saloon" (Ade,
          Chicago Stories, 1894). The main guy is no longer in common use, but around the turn of the
          century, it meant, according to Maitland's Slang Dictionary of 1891, 'the chief or leader of any
          organization'. Various writers have lamented the ubiquitousness of guy in American speech:
          "Guy ... must be one of the most frequently used words in America. It it a lazy man's word,
          reducing all adult males to simulacra among whom there is no need to make a distinction"
          (Evans & Evans, Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage, 1957). 

          By the 1940s, guy was being used to refer to a person of either sex: "She's a good guy. I'm
          glad she's on my side" says a character in the 1950 film Lonely Place. It is commonly used to
          refer to a mixed group, but "a guy thing" still means 'male'. 

          Guy has had a few other meanings over the years. In 19th-century America, it referred to a
          circus or carnival patron and also to a person who acted as a dupe in a confidence game.
          Although guy meaning 'a prank' is no longer common, guy can be a verb meaning either 'to
          ridicule' -- "Say, he'll be guyed about this for years to come"(Stephen Crane, Complete
          Stories,1898) or 'to hoax' -- "King Arthur ... had begun to suspect that he was being guyed"
          (T. Berger, Arthur Rex, 1978). 

          The guy in "guy wire," by the way, has nothing to do with "guy" it comes from Old French
          guier 'to guide'. 
 

Any etymologists in the house? Are we to take the application of the term Guy to Mr. Fawkes as an insult or as a title of leadership? You tell us! Mail us!

New - Music of the Period