Although its meaning has generally been forgotten (perhaps...

Although its meaning has generally been forgotten (perhaps ironically if you agree with the poem), Guy Fawkes Day commemorates a historical event of great significance in modern times. The Gunpowder Plot, of which Fawkes was a conspirator, was in essence a plan hatched by a group of religious extremists to blow up the seat of the English government, killing King James I and his ministers and paving the way for the conspirators to install a new government more in line with their ideology.

The situation arose because of the violent tensions between Catholics and Protestants not only in England but throughout Europe at that time (it should be remembered that this occurred only about a decade and a half before the Thirty Years' War, when the Catholic-Protestant conflict tore the Holy Roman Empire apart).

It's an important reminder for us today that in times where there are religious tensions, violence can come not only from outside a community or country but also from within. When religious ideology becomes an excuse for criminal behavior, regardless of who perpetrates it, the results are explosive.