Guy Fawkes Night Gratitude

It's Guy Fawkes Night here in Edinburgh and for once we've been blessed with perfect weather for the fireworks.

It was hard not to feel grateful this afternoon as I walked home through the early winter sunshine.  The wind was cold right enough and I needed gloves for the first time this year.  But the sun was strong, the sky a perfect blue, and the leaves that are still left on the trees are bursting with colour: flamboyant golds, reds, russets.  The wind rustles the branches as I walk past and I don't know if it's fanciful to imagine I can hear them whispering to me: "look at us, stop and look, look how beautiful we are."

I stop anyway.  Admire their beauty.  And feel grateful.

My mind flits back to Guy Fawkes nights from years gone by.  Waves of nostalgia wash over me as I remember fireworks nights as a child: the excitement of building the fire, burning the guy, the smell of the fireworks in our normally tame suburban gardens, the burst of rockets, mouth-burning mugs of soup, cold hands warmed by potatoes baked in the fire.

I remember the fun of taking children to fireworks night parties: the oohs and aahs as fireworks explode overhead, the demands for sparklers to wave and toffee apples to break your teeth.  (I conveniently forget standing in large crowds in the pouring rain, children complaining they can't see anything, knee deep in mud, small ones wailing in fear when the loudest rockets go off)

I breathe in gratitude.

My mind goes back to a November day four years ago.  A time when things had got so dark I could only spit out the starkest of words to notice the day:

November Day, I wrote

Blue sky
Yellow sun
Gold leaves
Red berries
White rose
Black cat

And I am so grateful that I have come out of the depths of that valley.   But looking back I am also thankful that even on the darkest of days - and I don't know if it was despite the darkness or because of it - the natural world still spoke to me, and compelled me to write.

And so I hurried home.  Rushed back for my camera to capture and share this afternoon with you.  Rushed back to write these words that were not on my list of things to be done but somehow just demanded to be told.

Asking me to write my gratitude for the day.

I am looking forward to learning from Rosa about the distinctions between gratitude, thankfulness and appreciation.

But for now I am just grateful for the gratitude I have felt on this day.

It's one of the best feelings I know.  And I am deeply thankful.

---

UPDATE: "Remember, remember, the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot" is how children in the UK remember the date for Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Night.  It also gives us a clue to the history behind the fireworks.  Guy Fawkes was one of a group of Roman Catholic conspirators who plotted to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill the king.  The plot was foiled in 1605 when the gunpowder was found in the cellar of the parliament.  Fawkes was tortured then hung, drawn and quartered.  The original idea of bonfire night was to remind people of what happens to those who commit treason.  An effigy of Guy Fawkes would be thrown on to a bonfire and burnt - and that still happens today.  People make up "guys" out of old clothes - they then sit proudly on top of the bonfire, waiting to be burnt.  Children used to try and make a little bit of money out of their creative efforts by displaying their guy on the street and asking for "a penny for the guy".  Some people fret each year about the religious dimension to the celebration, but I think most people nowadays just think the "guy" refers to a male figure, rather than poor tortured "Guy".  And some that do know their history like to think they're celebrating the rebellion, rather than the squashing  of it.  In any event, the tradition has lived on - bonfires, fireworks, burning effigies are all a perfect antidote to the cold dark nights at the start of November as the winter starts to close in.

History lesson over - thanks to Robyn for asking me to explain a bit more about the background!

---

Joanna Young is a writing coach who lives and works in Edinburgh.

You can read more of her work at the Confident Writing blog.
This month she's focusing there on writing to make a connection.

Comments

[Rosa Say]

How great to share Guy Hawkes Night with you in this way Joanna! You were so thoughtful to grab your camera for us, and as I read your post through for the second time now, I am thankful for you and your resilience and cheer, emerging from your darker November of the past – that is not at all the Joanna we have come to know and love!

JJL can be full of surprises, and I am often exceptionally grateful for what we learn from each other here; your posting today is the perfect example. I vaguely remembered Guy Hawkes’ name from my European history classes in school, but I wasn’t aware of the traditions that are still celebrated there now 400+ years later, and so I took your Wikipedia link to learn more. (I must say that the gruesome end to his life makes me quite thankful we have learned to treat human life with more dignity, even with more heinous criminals.)

With all the richness you’ve shared in this post alone, I know that I will be thinking of you the very next time we enjoy some fireworks here in Hawai‘i. I had to smile at your full-disclosure add-on about those other children’s complaints we adults will also remember about sharing these annual traditions, but isn’t it wonderful how the better memories are always the ones we call upon first? Yet another something to be grateful for, the way our minds work to make our lives-remembered beautiful —as beautiful as your photo.

[Robyn]

Hi Joanna, when I was young, my Australian mom talked about Guy Fawkes Day. I have no memory of what this was about. Would you be willing to share more on that?

I believe a grateful daily heart leads us to a blessed way of life, so I'm with you here all the way! When I forget gratefulness and graciousness, I begin to slip down into that valley you mention.

[Joanna Young]

Robyn, thanks for asking me about Guy Fawkes. I've updated the post to share a bit more of the history :-)

From a little bit of research I could see the day was celebrated in the southern hemisphere - but maybe only in NZ now. It'll be interesting to see if any of our Australian cousins put me right on that.

I agree with you on the benefits of gratitude - it makes such an extraordinary difference to the way that I feel and my experience of life.

Joanna

[Joanna Young]

Rosa, when we get to meet I will tell you more of how I got from there to here :-)

It's not something that I can easily write about yet (though I think there's a book in it one day). I do know though that however distant it might seem from the person you have come to know in 2007, some of those darker days have helped me to become who I am now, how I live, what I do, the values that I try to embody. I don't know that I can feel grateful for the experience - but maybe for the lessons that it taught me, which still shape most every day.

I've now read your piece introducing us to the distinctions between appreciation, gratitude and thankfulness and I must go back and mull over it slowly - but what struck me from a quick reading was the sharing dimension of thankfulness. You know i just couldn't wait to share my experience yesterday - and I also know that this was the perfect place to do it.

Joanna

[Steve Sherlock]

Joanna, thanks for the insights on poor Guy Fawkes. Religion causes so much evil, and yet, on the other hand creates so much fun. What a world we do live in!

Thanks for sharing! Sharing is one of the best parts of this group. We learn so much from each other.

[Joanna Young]

Steve, I love how we can share with each other too. It's fascinating to learn about other parts of the world, languages, cultures, background and influence.

And you know I got quite a buzz when I came back to look at my piece, thought about where this site is hosted (Hawaii), thought about all the places where people write from, where our readers come from, then looked at the picture of the canal at the end of my road and felt... kind of proud and humble at the same time

Joanna