News outlets across the US have claimed that the British tradition of setting off fireworks on Guy Fawkes Night in early November was actually a celebration of Joe Biden winning the presidential election.
This is the same news media that called a Biden victory and crowned him the next president of the United States of America.
Breitbart reports: Guy Fawkes Night, also referred to as Bonfire Night, is celebrated every year in the UK on November 5th and its closest weekend with fireworks, public bonfires, and burning effigies of political figures as well as the traditional Guy.
It commemorates the failure of the Gunpowder Plot 0f 1605, when Catholic Robert Catesby and his co-conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, plotted to blow up King James I and Members of the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on November 5th. Catesby planned the terror attack because the King did not support tolerance for Catholicism in the country.
.@ABC deleted this tweet…but the same BS story ran in multiple publications. https://t.co/2G5gQSfLlk pic.twitter.com/6y04Ht9znu
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) November 9, 2020
The conspirators were betrayed and the attack foiled, with Guy Fawkes being caught in Parliament’s cellar the day before, where 36 barrels of gunpowder had been planted. Others in the plot either died resisting arrest or were tried, found guilty of high treason, and executed.
Parliament then proclaimed that the 5th of November should be recognised, with the first Guy Fawkes celebrations taking place in 1606. The tradition of using fireworks represents the explosives that were never detonated under the Palace of Westminster. Guy Fawkes Night quickly spread to the American colonies, too, where since the 17th century it was known as Pope Day, though its celebration died out by the 19th century. Guy Fawkes Night is still held in New Zealand.
Fireworks and bonfire events can go on for days, particularly if the 5th falls on a weekday, with more displays held on the weekends. Celebrations are likely to be sporadic and ongoing this year, after England’s second lockdown came into effect on Thursday — Bonfire Night — which banned gatherings, likely resulting in Britons finding themselves with a surplus of pyrotechnics they could not use at parties.
Several U.S. news outlets, however, claimed that the fireworks the weekend just passed were for Joe Biden. Australian journalist Rita Panahi was one of several high-profile figures with a cursory knowledge of history to mock the likes of ABC News, which claimed: “Fireworks lit up the sky over London, England, after Joe Biden was characterised to be the apparent winner of the U.S. presidential election.” The erroneous tweet was later deleted.
“Fireworks were for Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night, you ignorant imbeciles. Nothing to do with US election,” Ms Panahi wrote on social media on Sunday.
Bad Start: Anti-Brexit Biden Declines Comment to British Media – 'The BBC? I'm Irish' https://t.co/Pko5Tpo6ED
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 8, 2020
The Hill claimed that “leftover fireworks” from Guy Fawkes were being let off for the pro-Irish Democrat in their article entitled: “Fireworks in London, Edinburgh as Biden win celebrated abroad.”
CNN reported: “Even across the ocean, there was celebration. In London, fireworks. In Paris, church bells.”
Fox News declared that “Europe celebrates Biden win fireworks, church bells.”
Even the establishment Associated Press ran a fact-checker piece that labelled as “false” claims that French churches rang their bells on Saturday evening in celebration of a Biden ‘victory’. The Paris Diocese and the Diocese of Nanterre, a Parisien suburb, told the wire service that the claims were not true, and churches had not been instructed to ring their bells for Biden.
While France’s lockdown forbids public worship, the dioceses’ spokesmen said the bells of some churches were still automatically scheduled to call worshippers to Saturday evening service.
“This is the case for the bells of the Notre-Dame de l’Assomption church in Meudon, which can be seen and heard in a video shared on social media by a resident of the city,” the Diocese of Nanterre told AP. “As every Saturday evening at 5:45 pm, bells of Notre-Dame de l’Assomption church in Meudon rang to announce the Mass at 6 pm.”
