Guy Fawkes, thanks to http://tiannangel.wordpress.com/

Last year our Foreign correspondant filed this story from Scotland on a holiday celebrated on this day:

Sinister holidays abound this week here in Scotland! First there was the celebration of Samhuinn on Saturday night. Now the Scots (with the rest of the UK!) are gearing up for festivities for Bonfire Night…

You’ve might have heard this rhyme:

Remember, remember the fifth of November
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot
I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli’ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s providence he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and a burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

(Thanks, Wikipedia, for the reminder!)

Now you’ve heard the rhyme (and maybe have seen references to it in “V for Vendetta“- see video below) — you may ask:

What has this to do with BONFIRE NIGHT?

First , a little history…

In 1605, in what was one of the world’s earliest foiled terrorist plots, Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators planned for 5 November to be a day that would live in infamy.

Mr. Fawkes headed a group of irritated Roman Catholics who wished to end the reign of Protestants under the rule of King James I.

His plan was to blow up the Parliament along with the King… and he almost pulled it off!

He filled a basement room in Parliament full of gunpowder and was ready to execute his deadly plan when he was discovered.

The Gunpowder Treason was found out and Fawkes was arrested, confessed under torture, and finally hanged, drawn, and quartered for his crime of high treason. (Read the full story, courtesy of the Gunpowder Plot Society, here.)

Today, BONFIRE NIGHT celebrates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot.  Brits light bonfires, set off fireworks, and boisterously burn effigies of Guy Fawkes.

In addition to the fun, you can also imagine there is some anxiety surrounding a holiday commonly called “Bonfire Night.” For the safety conscience, the night can be a nightmare.

Fire safety is a big concern here (more so than I’ve ever seen in the U.S. — for instance, I got to participate in two false fire alarms in two different campus buildings within a period of thirty minutes…).

Indeed, the Herald (Scotland) calls it the “busiest night of the year” for the fire brigades…

Anyway, that’s the story of bonfire night. If you’ve got left over fireworks from the fourth of July, I’m not going to encourage anything, but… “remember, remember…”

Thanks to the Guardian, we see some Silvio Berlusconi statuettes with some blood for flare in light of recent events...

This is one of a series of dispatches from our Foreign correspondent currently based in Scotland:

Ahhh… December 17. Almost time for me to resign my post as USDemocrazy Foreign Correspondent in Scotland and return to the ol’ homestead.

Can’t wait to get back to the place I know well, complete with crazy politics, late nights, and unique smells. And that’s just in the USDemocrazy headquarters.

But before coming home, I decided to pop over to Italy to check on things there.

(Editor’s note: The timing with the Recent attack on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (Ouch)is purely coincidental)

What was the biggest culture shock going from the UK to Italy? The politics? The people? The food? The language?

Nope — the traffic.

Forget adopting a common currency — the countries in Europe can’t even decide which side of the road to drive on!

That’s right, the Brits drive on the left side of the road. Italy and the rest of continental Europe drive on the right.

So what makes the stubborn Brits insist on driving on the ‘other ’side of the road?

Well, back in the days of yore, travelers on the road preferred to pass one another on the right side. Why? so that if necessary, they could attack the driver/horse-rider/traveler with their dominant hand. (People had road rage even back then.)

Eventually this practice was phased out as people started being less paranoid about getting attacked on the road.  The right side was chosen, eventually, by many countries to be the sensible way to take to the road.

So why does the UK (and Japan, and Ireland, and Australia, and India, and Thailand) continue to drive on the left? Tradition, sure, but also — MONEY. Imagine how much it might cost to turn around all the signs on the motorway. Not to mention re-engineering the cars and buses that run there. (I smell a campaign opportunity for GM in the UK… Lobby for the rules of  traffic to change and sell the Brits some American cars!)

It’s worth having a look around Europe to see just how disorienting new traffic rules are. Just look both ways before crossing the street. Seriously.

The world's strongest beer, Tactical Nuclear Penguin

This is one in a series of dispatches from our Foreign Correspondent currently on location in Scotland:

On exchange in Scotland, one of the biggest differences I’ve noticed between the UK and America is the drinking culture. (and we’re not talking about tea here…)

In the United Kingdom, the legal age of drinking alcohol is 18, three whole years before young people in the States.

Surprising to most Yanks, school social outings in the UK (and even academic ones) largely revolve around the local pub. Student societies are likely to organize their own pub crawls and professors are known to take students out for a drink and conversation. Because virtually anyone at the university is of legal drinking age, this is no problem.

That said, it’s also well-known that Scotland has a problem with alcohol. There is legislation in front of the Scottish parliament currently that aims to remedy this problem, dealing with alcohol prices and even (shock!) the drinking age.

While in the States there is a decent amount of discussion of lowering the drinking age to make alcohol consumption more regulated for younger people, the Student newspaper points out that the Scottish Government is considering raising the drinking age in certain circumstances.

Under consideration is raising to 21 the age for purchasing alcohol in off-licence shops (these are like liquor stores where the alcohol purchased would be consumed off the property). This is quite unpopular with students and legislators alike.

The ‘Alcohol Bill’, as it’s called, also proposed a minimum price for alcohol. The sponsor of the bill, the Scottish National Party (SNP), sees the bill as a way to combat the drinking problem:

But simply acknowledging we have a problem is not enough. Now is the time for action… No-one can seriously argue that selling strong drink for pocket money prices isn’t fuelling heavy consumption.

The second-largest party in the Scottish parliament, the Scottish Labour party, has said it won’t support the Alcohol Bill, which would effectively defeat the bill and its measures. Yet one expert believes there is a distinct link between low prices and alcohol consumption who is asking the members of the Scottish parliament to reconsider their opinions:

There is now compelling scientific evidence that clearly shows the strong link between alcohol consumption, pricing and harm.

While MSPs are deciding on legislation that has potential for influencing the drinking culture in Scotland, one Scottish brewery has decided to start marketing the world’s most alcoholic beer. Timely, eh?

The Scottish flag

This is one in a series of reports from our Foreign Correspondent currently stationed in Scotland:

While you Americans are stuffing yourselves with turkey today, being thankful and what-not, I will be sitting in class. But, not the bitter type, I’ve decided to turn my attention to celebrations of St. Andrew’s day here in Scotland!

St. Andrew’s day falls on the 30th of November each year to honor the patron saint of Scotland (Saint Andrew).

Saint Andrew was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. Legend tells that when he was crucified, he felt unworthy of being crucified in the manner of Jesus and so was crucified on a diagonal cross.

For this reason, the flag of Scotland bears a saltire (the white X symbolizing the diagonal cross of Saint Andrew) on a blue background.

St. Andrew’s Day is the national day of Scotland, one which the flag is to be flown on every flagpole.

In addition to national pride events, it is common to mark the holiday with a ceilidh (a Gaelic word, pronounced like ‘kay-lee’). This is a community dance event at which traditional upbeat music is played and the kilts go flying! The band calls the steps and the dancers go swinging!

Take a peek at ceilidh dancing below, then participate in the World Wide Ceilidh! If you need to burn some calories after all that turkey, it’s not such a bad way to do it…

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is part of a regular series of posts by our foreign correspondent currently stationed in Scotland:

We Americans have a fairly romanticized idea of royalty, thank mostly to Disney movies (like my personal favorite, “The Princess Diaries”). In fact I came here with a vague hope of bumping into Prince Harry… But I digress.

To the Brits, the royal family is anything but romantic.

The House of Windsor is, of course, headed by Queen Elizabeth II, who is married to the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip.

Now, Prince Philip, the longest serving consort in British history, has garnered a reputation for producing some classic foot-in-mouth moments. (Whether he sees his gaffes as gaffes is unknown to me.)

Having learned of a Prince Philip sighting in Edinburgh yesterday, I did some research on the Duke of Edinburgh. Most of the first links on my Google search were to sites listing his best quotes.

My favorite? After the coronation of his wife,

Where did you get the hat?

Here’s a list of Prince Philip’s top fifteen best comments. Enjoy — and remember, if you’re  royal, you can get away with this stuff…

A seller of "The Big Issue" - a primary participant in ISNP

This is part of our regular series of dispatches from our foreign correspondent currently on location in Scotland:

Walking down the street in Edinburgh, I run into a lot of people (sometimes figuratively, mostly literally) who want my attention.

Actually, they want any body’s attention. They are trying to promote events, sell mobile phone service, ask for money for charity, or sell newspapers.

But what really got my attention was this recent newspaper article about the street newspaper sellers.

These sellers are Hawking for the Homeless!

The article tells that the International Network of Street Papers provides job opportunities to some participating cities’ homeless and impoverished populations. This program allows them to purchase the newspapers at 50% of the cover price, and what profit they make they get to keep. This helps participants work their way into permanent employment.

Sounds like a pretty good idea. Perhaps is this another reason to support the print newspaper industry?

Next time I see someone on the street hawking papers, I’ll be more tempted to buy a paper. Like the saying goes, there is a story behind every paper… and every paper seller.

Thanks to the Beltane Fire Society

In the States, Halloween is huge. No one can deny that.

Here in Europe… well, it’s getting more popular. I’ve recently learned that many of the traditions Americans partake in on October 31 may have started over here in Scotland… Who knew?

The oldest version of Halloween (called Samhuinn or Samhain) took place on the Celtic New Year’s eve.

Except… those kooky Celts didn’t have a new year like us.

The Celts built their calendar around the Sun and moon. Right now in Scotland there is very little sun (No joke — the sun starts going down around 4:15 these days…)

So, they celebrated New Year (Samhuinn) now.

Why? Because they wanted to mark the end of the sunny part of the year and the beginning of the dark half of the year.

Samhuinn being celebrated on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh... Looks like some party, huh? Image courtesy of Jelena Aleksic

Here’s the spooky bit… ( cue creepy music…)

It is believed that on this evening, there is an opening between the supernatural world and our world allowing the dead to freely visit under the veil of darkness… And so, two important traditions arose from this belief: trick or treats and costumes!

To protect against the spookiness of the darkness, communities would build a large fire.  This was a way of showing community solidarity whilst keeping the threat of ghouls and such out!

This community hospitality and protection in darkness and fear is what we know as the “treat” part of Halloween.

BUT those families that did not participate in the community or defied communal values were punished!

The punishment would usually include some form of public humiliation — the “trick.”

The practice of wearing masks and disguises were also used to help keep away those pesky visiting spirits…

For fairness’ sake, I should mention I didn’t learn this all by myself, but rather in my Scottish Studies class.

Apparently there’s a few more Scottish holidays in the next few months, which you’ll be sure to hear about… But for now, I’m going to try to participate in some community traditions this Samhuinn so as to not get any “tricks”…

And while you’re busy dreaming up schemes to get candy, the best tricks to play, and last-minute costumes, enjoy a video of some good scares:

From the USDemocrazy foreign affairs reporter in Scotland:

People always like to talk about the strong influence of American popular culture abroad, and I can see it here in Scotland. (For instance, USDemocrazy is taking the UK by storm! One of those really small, barely noticeable storms…)

Given my unabashed admiration for the wonders of American culture, particularly the awesomeness of Hollywood, I’ve been slightly let down by the irregularity of movie releases in the UK. Let me explain:

It’s bad enough having to hear from my US friends who watch my favorite TV shows just as the universe had intended… live on television!  But to wait weeks after a film is released in the US for it to finally show up in UK cinemas is just torture!

I decided to ask Google why American movies are released on a different date abroad (even in English-speaking countries) after they do in the U.S.

I quickly found out that this is not necessarily always the case. An insightful, but not exactly vetted, answer on Yahoo! Answers informed me that the delay is intentional. Allegedly this generates word-of-mouth ‘buzz’ in the U.S. and helps the movie producers to evaluate the market for their products abroad.

Even British films don’t always get released first in Britain. The movie “Bright Star” about English poet John Keats won’t even be released until November in the United Kingdom, but was released in September in the USA! Preposterous.

This past weekend’s big US blockbuster, “Where the Wild Things Are,” is not even to be released in the UK until December, but “Couples Retreat,” which no one here has heard of, was released overseas quite soon after its release in the US. “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” on the other hand, the final film starring Heath Ledger, came out this past weekend on this side of the pond, well before its Christmas US release date.

Needless to say… I’m confused! The Brits do not like life simple… Not politics, not schools, not religion, not history nor royal lineage… And the anomalies of the film industry just further confound my attempts at understanding life here! Theories on this topic are well appreciated in the comments section!

Enjoy some trailers while theorising…

This is the third in our regular series of dispatches from the USDemocrazy overseas correspondent:

Recently, I’ve been getting really homesick for the good ol’ USDemocrazy staff meetings… Dozing off, not making sense of anything anyone said… Luckily, I get a pretty healthy does of not understanding people right here in Scotland!

Before I left for my overseas adventure, I was asked if Scottish people speak English. I scoffed, “Of course they do!” Little did I know, there’s quite a difference between American English, English English, and Scottish English…

The most notorious of the Scottish accents is from Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city.

In fact, yesterday the BBC reported that translators are needed to interpret the Glaswegian (from Glasgow) dialect for visitors. They even kindly included a small glossary of Glaswegian slang. (My favorite: “Hee haw,” which allegedly means “nothing.”)

Sure, you knew about Gaelic, now you know about the Glaswegian dialect, but have you heard of Scots?

Experts are fighting over whether to call Scots a language or a dialect… But either way, you need training to understand it. Take the greeting from the official Scots website:

Howp ye enjoy whit we hae tae offer…

You get the general idea. If you’re interested in reading some Scots poetry, Robert Burns‘  “To A Louse” is  the best place to start. I defy you to do it without consulting the Scots glossary! A small sample to get you started:

Ha! whaur ye gaun, ye crowlin ferlie?
Your impudence protects you sairly;
I canna say but ye strunt rarely,
Owre gauze and lace;
Tho’, faith! I fear ye dine but sparely
On sic a place.

So, if someone ever asks you, “What language do they speak in Scotland?” the best you can do is shake your head and shrug…

I'll explain later. (Thanks Wikicommons!)

Back in the U.S., it’s not so hard to keep up with current events. (Just check USDemocrazy every day, right?) But here in Scotland, apparently I have to understand the news back home and in the United Kingdom? Honestly, I thought I was getting a little vacation…

Misunderstandings aside, here’s some stories that are popping up in Scotland and elsewhere:

Jeez, can’t a politician enjoy a glass of really expensive champagne anymore??? David Cameron, leader of the British Conservative Party (nicknamed the Tories) was caught enjoying come  bubbly after rolling out plans for spending cuts in Britain… Oops!

Gael force: To all you speakers of Scottish Gaelic, welcome (fàilte) to the European Union!

Your first Gaelic lesson: “Alba” – Gaelic for “Scotland.”

Does your sister make you happy? She should, according to this study!

New York introduces a fat new ad campaign… Look and be discouraged?

In other news, British people don’t understand what “grilled cheese” is. A favorite dish amongst American college students and beyond, the concept is lost on foreigners.

“What, do you just put cheese on a grill? Huh?” – Actual quote from English flatmate.

Apparently, this is called a “toastie” here in the UK, but it’s just not the same… Clearly, I have so much to learn, but also so much to teach…