Remember, remember

On this 5th of November, we look at protest masks beyond the famous Guy Fawkes visage

Guy Fawkes mask

Today is Guy Fawkes Day. This British holiday — honoring the capture and subsequent hanging of the eponymous conspirator — has definitively dropped its violent origins. Indeed, ever since Fawkes and his fellow Gunpowder Plot comrades failed to blow up Parliament and King James I in 1605, Britons happily celebrate the Catholic's demise with fireworks, flaming effigies, and general revelry every 5th of November.

Fawkes' second coming as a mask was aided by V for Vendetta, a graphic novel authored throughout the 1980s and turned into a feature film in 2005.

And while the angular white-and-black creation has been appropriated by protesters in America, Egypt, and beyond, Fawkes isn't the only face of public demonstration. Here, a selection of protest masks from South Korea to Brazil that say so much more than words.

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Lauren Hansen produces The Week’s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.