When the Gilded Heiresses Swapped Thanksgiving for Guy Fawkes Night

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Every November, while Americans prepare to gather at the table, the British huddle round the bonfire, eyes to the sky in anticipation of a spectacular fireworks display playing homage to one particularly infamous 17th-century rabble-rouser: Guy Fawkes.

For the Gilded Age women who left New York, Boston, and Newport to marry into Britain’s aristocracy, that swap must have felt both strange and symbolic. Instead of turkey and pie, they were greeted by the scent of smoke, the crack of fireworks, and the sight of effigies burning against the autumn sky.

While Thanksgiving in the United States was about gratitude and homecoming, Guy Fawkes Night in Britain (a centuries-old commemoration of a failed rebellion) celebrated loyalty and survival. The two holidays told different stories about who a nation believed itself to be. And for the American heiresses who crossed the Atlantic, they offered a vivid lesson in cultural contrast.