Aliens in This World
Aliens in This World
More on Ronald Hutton - all this thanks to Ray Girvan.
"For example, many Southern England towns, like Ottery St. Mary (inspiration for Ron Weasley's hometown Ottery St. Catchpole) roll flaming tar barrels through town. As this site notes, the standard explanation now is that it's an ancient rite done to cleanse the streets of evil spirits. In actual fact, it was initially an anti-Catholic demonstration invented for Guy Fawkes Day, but was continued because it was fun and looked cool. Naturally, nobody wants to say "Oh, yeah, we're basically remembering our forefathers' KKK-like actions", so they fall back on the pagan explanation."
More on Ronald Hutton - all this thanks to Ray Girvan.
"For example, many Southern England towns, like Ottery St. Mary (inspiration for Ron Weasley's hometown Ottery St. Catchpole) roll flaming tar barrels through town. As this site notes, the standard explanation now is that it's an ancient rite done to cleanse the streets of evil spirits. In actual fact, it was initially an anti-Catholic demonstration invented for Guy Fawkes Day, but was continued because it was fun and looked cool. Naturally, nobody wants to say "Oh, yeah, we're basically remembering our forefathers' KKK-like actions", so they fall back on the pagan explanation."
posted by Toby Scott at 11/09/2004 11:18:00 AM
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