So I figured out why, on November 5 every year, the English celebrate the spectacular, complete and utter failure of Guy Fawkes and his cronies to blow up Parliament. For 250-odd years it was illegal for them not to! It was legislated shortly after that November 5 would be a day of thanksgiving for the deliverance of all those lords and the King and all that from the fiery inferno that would likely have been the result if Guy Fawkes had succeeded. It turns out that gunpowder, packed into barrels, and left in the vaulted basement of a building (such as, oh, say, Parliament) actually AMPLIFIES the power of the gunpowder. If Fawkes had succeeded, it would have been a mess on a scale like... well... they actually did a recreation of a similar explosion on an army ordinance testing field around here somewhere... and the shockwave was MASSIVE!

I can hear the fireworks from the city centre right now - they're too low for me to actually see from my room, but that's ok, as I'm going to another set later this evening.

Remember, remember the 5th of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot...