Bonfire Night
Nov. 5 is Guy Fawkes Night in Britain. It is a tradition that started in 1605. That’s when Catholic rebels plotted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London — but they were found out! Guy Fawkes was one of the conspirators in the plot that would have set off explosives as King James I of England and several members of Parliament were in the building. While it’s not an official holiday, Guy Fawkes night, which is also known as Bonfire Night, is a night that many people choose to light bonfires and set off fireworks.
Thanksgiving
Americans aren’t the only people to celebrate Thanksgiving. Ours is on the fourth Thursday in November. But did you know that Canada celebrates Thanksgiving, too? It’s on the second Monday in October. On the island of Grenada, they celebrate Thanksgiving on Oct. 23. In the Philippines, Thanksgiving falls on Sept. 21, and on Saint Lucia, it’s on the first Monday in October. The Japanese have Labor Thanksgiving Day on November 23. While all of the traditions and reasons are different in each country, people around the world set aside time to be thankful.
Daylight Savings Time
Get ready to set your clocks back an hour on Nov. 6. It is the end of Daylight Savings time! Even though Daylight Savings Time feels like the right thing to do, that wasn’t always so. During World War I, in March 1918, the U.S. enacted a law to preserve daylight and preserve standard time for the U.S. Not everyone liked this, and when the war ended, the law was repealed in 1919 — although there were some states that continued to use Daylight Saving Time. President Franklin Roosevelt brought it back during World War II, calling it War Time. After the war, from 1945 to 1966, there were no laws about DST and states could choose whether or not to continue the practice. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which regulated DST so that all the states observed DST consistently. It was revised several times between 1972 and 2007. It was in 2007 that the rules for DST became official: DST begins at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday of March and ends at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of November.
