AKRON, Ohio -- Masked protesters from Akron Anonymous celebrated Guy Fawkes Day Thursday at the federal courthouse, shouting about topics from campaign finance to fluoride.

The Nov. 5 holiday is generally celebrated in the United Kingdom, to commemorate the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when a group of English Catholics tried to assassinate the Protestant King James 1. Fawkes was caught guarding explosives placed beneath the House of Lords.

The Akron protest was part of a worldwide Million Mask March, organized by Anonymous, an international network of computer hackers, for the second year.

A security guard at the courthouse Thursday implored the Fawkes-disguised protesters to keep the doorway clear as attorneys in suits and ties cut through the crowd of skate-boarding, flag-waving youth.

"There are ways to do things and ways not to do things," the guard pleaded. "Could you please just move back a few feet."

"No. We don't listen to you, we don't listen to anyone. We are going to stand right here," a protester retorted, before another masked figure sounded the alarm on a bull horn, prompting the group to shift its current towards the University of Akron.

One protester said 30 to 40 protesters turned out this year, about twice as many as last.

"We come together, we each have our own various reasons for being here, it's more for just coming together and meeting people and being like 'Hey, lets get out there,'" said the man, who identified himself only as Vitamin D. "It's easier to come out and join a bunch of people in masks."