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What the hell is 'Burning Man' about? Is this a big thing in the States? (Malcolm in the Middle's on) Have they really co-opted a Pagan celebration and turned it into an organised 'festival'?!
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liz-marcs.livejournal.com on January 8th, 2006 12:28 pm (UTC)Yes and no.
Burning Man actually kind of started as a joke. There were these two guys on a beach in San Francisco. One of them had a bunch of personal crap happen to him, so to help relieve the tension, they created this wooden man and set fire to it on the beach. Well, this attracted attention from other people on the beach and they all came running. This resulted in some sort of impromptu sing-a-long and party.
Over the years it kind of grew to the point where they had to take it into the desert. It's more like a week-long art festival that attracts people from all over. It's got more than a little snob appeal these day, you know, one of those things everyone should do at least once. But the true believers can be kind of annoying in the same way the Deadheads used to be...you know the ones who would drop out of real life for a year or two and follow Jerry and the boys all over the country.
*shrug* Does it have some paganistic elements? Probably. But then there's a lot of stuff around that definitely have roots in it, like Catholic saints, a lot of the doo-dads we employ at Christmas, and maybe even Guy Fawkes day. It's mostly harmless fun coupled with a canny marketing ability and the willingness to make oodles of money to do it.
Here's where you can get the complete lowdown on Burning Man: http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/
Burning Man actually kind of started as a joke. There were these two guys on a beach in San Francisco. One of them had a bunch of personal crap happen to him, so to help relieve the tension, they created this wooden man and set fire to it on the beach. Well, this attracted attention from other people on the beach and they all came running. This resulted in some sort of impromptu sing-a-long and party.
Over the years it kind of grew to the point where they had to take it into the desert. It's more like a week-long art festival that attracts people from all over. It's got more than a little snob appeal these day, you know, one of those things everyone should do at least once. But the true believers can be kind of annoying in the same way the Deadheads used to be...you know the ones who would drop out of real life for a year or two and follow Jerry and the boys all over the country.
*shrug* Does it have some paganistic elements? Probably. But then there's a lot of stuff around that definitely have roots in it, like Catholic saints, a lot of the doo-dads we employ at Christmas, and maybe even Guy Fawkes day. It's mostly harmless fun coupled with a canny marketing ability and the willingness to make oodles of money to do it.
Here's where you can get the complete lowdown on Burning Man: http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/
whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on January 8th, 2006 12:54 pm (UTC)Aha - so it's Glastonbury in America then. :)
Years ago, when he was Prime Minister, a few of my friends and I had a picture of John Major (then PM) in our Uni halls dorm room - he was Tory, we definitely weren't. Our room became a kind of haven for other students (so much so that if I ever open a coffee shop it'll be named C32 after that room) and we invited people to add their comments/graffiti to that picture. I had a lot of personal things happen that year (family members with extremely bad health) as did my room-mate. We ended up having a beach party one night and took the graffitoed (I think that's the right spelling but it looks so wrong) picture down and ceremonially set it alight. We also took all the flags out of the holes on the golf course (did I mention this was at St Andrews and there was a televised tournament on the next day? *g*) and added most of them to the fire.
It was a cleansing ritualistic fire which ended up being a huge beach party but could only really have happened once. To try to replicate it would have taken the spirit from it.
I get the feeling from what I've read that the Burning Man festival has gone down that route.
When I saw it on the show (MitM) it reminded me of the Wicker Man festivals - from where the inspiration doubtless came - but it seems that aside from the self expression and artistic freedom there's little connection.
Thanks for the link!
Years ago, when he was Prime Minister, a few of my friends and I had a picture of John Major (then PM) in our Uni halls dorm room - he was Tory, we definitely weren't. Our room became a kind of haven for other students (so much so that if I ever open a coffee shop it'll be named C32 after that room) and we invited people to add their comments/graffiti to that picture. I had a lot of personal things happen that year (family members with extremely bad health) as did my room-mate. We ended up having a beach party one night and took the graffitoed (I think that's the right spelling but it looks so wrong) picture down and ceremonially set it alight. We also took all the flags out of the holes on the golf course (did I mention this was at St Andrews and there was a televised tournament on the next day? *g*) and added most of them to the fire.
It was a cleansing ritualistic fire which ended up being a huge beach party but could only really have happened once. To try to replicate it would have taken the spirit from it.
I get the feeling from what I've read that the Burning Man festival has gone down that route.
When I saw it on the show (MitM) it reminded me of the Wicker Man festivals - from where the inspiration doubtless came - but it seems that aside from the self expression and artistic freedom there's little connection.
Thanks for the link!