Burning Man Festival contrasted with India's Kumbh Mela

 

Today I stumbled upon an interesting comparison of Burning Man Festival with the Kumbh Mela festival in India. The contrast at Fest300 by Chip Conley is largely through photographs accompanied by some commentary, but the contrast of these transformational festivals across cultures is worth taking a look at for those students and scholars of religion and festival culture. The photo above is taken from the site with the author's comments:

I know Burning Man founder Larry Harvey didn’t have Kumbh Mela in mind when the he first burned an effigy on the beach in San Francisco. This blossomed into a festival dedicated to using art as a means of one regenerating oneself, but the similarities are uncanny and say something about the commonality of enduring human ritual. Here’s a few Kumbh Mela pictures considered from the viewpoint of Burning Man.

Jeet-Kei Leung: Burning Man and Transformational Festivals

The Wild Hunt blog recently posted on the video above: Jason Pitzl-Waters wrote:

The TEDx Youtube channel recently uploaded a talk by Jeet Kei Leung from TEDxVancouver 2010 on transformational festivals. The half-hour presentation focuses on West Coast-oriented festivals and events like Faerieworlds and Burning Man and talks about how these events re-merge spiritual/religious practices with secular festival culture.

As Jason offers his commentary on Leung's work he also connects this idea of transformational festivals to Dragon*Con, a fascinating idea which has merit as I've noted in the religious elements in the Star Trek subculture and in my past posts elsewhere (see below) on the similarities between Burning Man Festival and Dragon*Con.

Near the end of Leung's analysis he summarizes some of the key elements in these festivals. His mention of co-creation in participation, and returning a sense of mythos are especially significant for those in Western Christendom with ears to hears the winds of change among the cultural creatives.

I'm glad to see others picking up on the spiritual and religious significance of these events, and I'm looking forward to Leung's book.

See my related posts "Star Trek as a Religious Phenomenon," "Star Trek Conventions as Sacred Pilgrimage," and "Fan Culture Documentaries: Back to Space-Con, and Four Days at Dragon*Con."

Dumb Supper, Mourning Tea, Grieving, and Connections with the Dead

One facet of my recent trip to Salem interested me quite a bit, and I think it merits a separate post. It involves two aspects of the Festival of the Dead celebrations, including The Mourning Tea, and The Dumb Supper. The festival website describes the Tea like this:

"Don your finest mourning attire and hearken back to a time when mourning customs were elaborate and extravagant. Music will fill the air with sweet sorrow as the resident bards of the long black veil recite a selection of odes to the somber beauty of Death’s final waltz. High tea complete with courses of traditional tea sandwiches and desserts will be served.

"Share your favorite photos and tales of your family members, friends, mentors, or other loved ones who have passed away. You will be invited to place a photo and description of your loved one into our Salem Witches’ Book of the Dead, used to honor and invoke the ancestors. Through the sharing of these pictures and stories, those who have crossed over will live on in the hearts and minds of those who remain for generations to come."

And the Supper is described in this way:

"Join the Salem Witches as we honor the dead with a dinner observed in utter silence. Salem Witch Christian Day invites you to a banquet of sumptuous cuisine where the only sound heard is music chosen in memory of the departed. Bring photos and mementos to summon the souls of your loved ones on the other side as you partake in the most solemn of all the ceremonies of Witchcraft. The Dumb Supper is an ancient tradition where the dead attend the living for a magical night of communion!

"The evening opens with a ceremony welcoming the dead, after which attendees are guided into the sacred space where the feast is served. From this point on, no one may speak. By remaining quiet, you will open your heart and mind to those who have crossed over."

As I read culture I try to do so with Christian eyes that see the Spirit of God moving and where I might come alongside, and sometimes it is happening in ways that might not be seen by many other Christians. In this case I believe the Tea and the Supper represent significant parts of the Festival of the Dead that are similar to what I observed at Burning Man Festival with participants who memorialize lost loved ones at the Temple. Readers can read my previous comments on this aspect of Burning Man here, but in my view given Western failures at providing appropriate venues for the grieving process, and virtually no sense of connectedness and honor for deceased loved ones and ancestors, it appears that other cultures (such as Mexico with its Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead) and subcultures (such as Burning Man Festival and Salem's Pagan and Wiccan community with aspects of its Festival of the Dead) meet real needs that facilitate healthy and much-needed rituals and points of connection with the dead.

Conservative Christian readers should not misconstrue my meaning here. I am not advocating communication with the dead (so please don't post comments or send emails accusing me of necromancy or perceived scriptural violations), but I do believe there is a place, particularly within Protestantism, for new rituals associated with death that help the living better deal with grief, and maintain a sense of connectedness and honor for the dead beyond our Western tendency toward individualism and "gone and nearly forgotten" attitudes that privilege the living over the dead and do not provide for a sense of ongoing connectedness with family, ancestors, and lost loved ones.

I would love to experiment with a local and contextualized version of some of these things in my Utah context. I wonder whether a Christian community can be found with the interest (and daring) to put together a communal and memorial meal that involves ritual such as a Book of the Dead or the creation of a temple-like structure with personal offerings that are burned in memory and love for the departed. It would seem to me that several segments of Utah's population would resonate with such an event, whether Latter-day Saints with their emphasis on family in this life and beyond the grave, the Neo-Pagan subculture, and various other groups that make up Utah's people and community mosaic.

Last year Cornerstone Festival took an initial step in this area when they contextualized a Dia de los Muertos offrenda or family altar of offerings for the deceased, but unfortunatley they were met by charges of necromancy and syncretism by conservative Christian elements. (Readers should read my summary and response to such charges in my previous post on this topic.) There is a need to move beyond such shallow, knee-jerk reactions and to engage in more careful cultural and theological reflection. In so doing, perhaps a festival subculture like Burning Man outside Reno, and a Neo-Pagan subculture like that at Salem, have some valuable things to teach us about attitudes toward death, the dead as well as the living.

Festivals and Festivity

In a previous post I noted the signfiicance of play theology to Western Christianity, particularly in reflection on how this is expressed as a major facet of alternative cultural events and intentional communties like Burning Man Festival. Play takes on special significance when connected to the issue of festivals and sacred festivity.

Festivals present specific challenges to Protestantism. While Roman Catholic and secular scholars have devoted serious attention to festivity, this is not the case with Protestants. Festivity is not taken seriously either as a cultural phenomenon or as a topic for scholarly exploration by most Protestants, and yet Catholic scholars have argued “that festivals belong by rights among the greatest topics of philosophical discussion” (Pieper 1999, back cover).

In the work of Yinger on countercultures, he includes a chapter on symbolic countercultures which use rituals of inversion that reverse and mock the established order. These countercultures have existed in the past and the present, and Yinger says that “such activities can be matched in the medieval and contemporary worlds” (1982, 154). Peter Burke discusses such phenomena in his book on popular culture in early modern Europe. He says that, “[c]arnival was, in short, a time of institutionalized disorder, a set of rituals of reversal” (1990, 190). Duvignaud references the same thing in his comment that “festival involves a powerful denial of the established order” (1976, 19). In the context of early modern Europe, this celebration of social inversion involved a number of phenomena, including dressing in costumes, cross-dressing, intense sexual activity, as well as weddings and mock weddings (Burke 1990, 186). Burke sees these activities as fulfilling an important social function as ritual regardless of “whether participants are aware of this or not” (ibid., 199).

Here we might note the connection of the festive and ritual expression of acts of social inversion to Burning Man. First, individuals come to the festival in order to carve out their own place in space and time which includes acts of creativity as well as social inversion. Second, the activities of social inversion at Burning Man exactly parallel those expressed in carnival and festival in early modern Europe, including costuming, cross-dressing, sexual activity, weddings, and mock weddings. Thus, the activities at Burning Man may be understood as a contemporary expression of festival with historical and cross-cultural precedents.

But an aspect of festival that may not be familiar to evangelicals is its connection in the past to the life of the church. As Bakhtin reminds us, carnival and festival provided a “second life of the people, who for a time entered the utopian realm of community, freedom, equality, and abundance” (1984, 9), and further “[a]ll forms of carnival were linked externally to the feasts of the church” (ibid., 8). Harris notes a similar historic connection between the church and festival and states that, “[a] good case can be made, however, for the argument that Carnival developed within the Christian community from the topsy-turveydom of Christmas” (2003, 140). Festivals thus have a historic connection to Christianity, both through Christmas celebrations as well as the connection between Carnival and Lent. Carnival is a Roman Catholic celebration with the carnival season being a holiday period that is celebrated during the two weeks before the traditional Christian fasting of Lent. Lent is a time of preparation for Holy Week, and its forty days of observance are symbolic of forty day periods of religious significance found in the Judeo-Christian narrative, most especially Jesus’ retreat into the wilderness for a time of fasting and temptation.

Yet even in this ecclesiastical context the social inversion of festivity was still present. Harris notes that carnival celebration in connection with Christmas in medieval and early modern Europe involved “[c]ross-dressing, masking as animals, wafting foul-smelling incense, and electing burlesque bishops, popes, and patriarchs [that] mocked conventional human pretensions” (ibid.).

If festival was connected at one point in history with the church’s sacred calendar, why did it disappear? At least two reasons seem likely. The first is that such festive play is perceived as dangerous in ecclesiastical contexts. As Manning states, “[p]lay theology, it seems, is frightened of sensuality, excess and ambiguity which all reside in the body and are unleashed in play process – as if it is frightened of the carnality of birth and death itself” (1983, 369). Krondorfer develops this idea further when he states that,

[p]lay processes (such as dance, festivals or ceremonies) are often excessive, transgressive, inversive and passionate. They can be carnivalesque in structure and ‘anti-theological’, as Julia Kristeva explains. They challenge ‘God, authority and social law’.

A few play theologians are aware of the fact that actual play processes, including religious rituals (such as the medieval Feast of Fools), are transgressive, subversive and dangerous; but they do not fully integrate this knowledge in their theological thinking’” (1993, 368).

Krondorfer’s analysis converges with Miller’s in that he later states that, “[p]lay theology, it seems, is frightened of sensuality, excess and ambiguity” (ibid., 369), and this frightening and dangerous form of expression and theologizing apparently proved threatening to the church.

The second reason why festivity has lots its connection to the church and its sacred calendar of celebrations may be connected to the Protestant Reformation. The celebration of certain holidays in the church calendar “diminished in importance” with the Reformation (Santino 1994, xvi), and further, some seem to have been expunged as a reaction against aspects of Roman Catholicism. As an example, Hutton comments on contemporary Protestant concerns over Halloween and its connection to All Saints and All Souls Day from the past:

Such an attitude could be most sympathetically portrayed as a logical development of radical Protestant hostility to the holy days of All Saints and All Souls; having abolished the medieval rites associated with them and attempted to remove the feast altogether, evangelical Protestants are historically quite consistent in trying to eradicate any traditions surviving from them. If so many of those traditions appear now to be divorced from Christianity, this is precisely because of the success of earlier reformers in driving them out of the churches and away from clerics… (1996, 384).

I suggest that despite the potential danger that festival celebration poses to the church with all of its rituals of social inversion, that the vacuum created in Western culture as a result of a lack of sacred festivity that includes social inversion has resulted in the creation of new forms of sacred festivity that are interpreted outside the Christian context through alternative cultural events such as Burning Man. Thus, festivals and festivity represent another “unpaid bill of the church.”

I argue that festivity need not be divorced from the context of Protestant community and church life. Indeed, the rediscovery and experimentation with festivity will play an essential part of the church’s engagement with Burning Man as well as other facets of postmodern spirituality. I believe that the church can benefit from fresh exploration of festivity in three areas, that of festivity serving as a reminder of the biblical teaching on social inversion, festivity as a tool for theological reflection, and as a source for fresh ritual in the church.

First, festivity reminds the church of it own traditions on social inversion. A number of biblical passages touch on this topic, with the “Magnificat” from the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel being one of the most relevant with its discussion of the raising of the humble and the bringing down of rulers from their thrones (verse 53). Harris discusses the connection between the social inversion of festival and the Judeo-Christian scriptural narratives in this area:

The Feast of Fools, with its explicit justification in the Magnificat, noisily proclaimed the Christian basis for festive roles of reversal…. [This is echoed in] Christ’s utterances about children and the Kingdom of Heaven, Isaiah’s prophecy that a little child shall lead them (Isaiah 11:6), and the theme of inversion and the world turned upside-down found in texts like the ‘Magnificat’.. (2003, 141).

Second, festivals provide the church with another tool for theological reflection. Once again Harris’s comments are helpful:

The popular elements in patronal saints’ day festivals, like Carnival, have often been demonized as pagan or heretical...Could it be that popular religious festivals offer a source of theological wisdom, otherwise unarticulated and therefore unnoticed by formal theology, that is worthy of a place alongside sacred text, reason, and ecclesiastical tradition? Such a perspective would partly balance the standard sources of theology, which privilege clerical exegesis, educated reason, and authoritative legitimation of tradition (ibid., 28).

Third, festivity provides a source for fresh ritual in the church. Chad Martin has written an intriguing paper that explores the potential for carnival as a form of ritual that holds great promise for the church (1999). In his view, “Carnival is the necessary Dionysian expression that counter-balances the church’s otherwise Apollonian heady approach to religion” (ibid., 35). He draws attention to the “ecclesiastical symbolism” of festivals, including Mardi Gras (ibid., 36), and sets forth a case for the possibility of “ritual transformation” that takes place through Carnival and festival with its “precarious social inversion” (ibid., 37). Like Harris, he draws a connection between festive social inversion and biblical themes, and then makes a case for the necessity of the chaos and revelry of carnival for Christian worship (ibid., 40). In his view, festivity is important for Christian worship for two reasons: “first, the glorification of the humorous, light-hearted side of human experience; and second, the inversion of social standards (in the biblical settings this means the opportunity for social change)” (ibid.). Martin’s discussion then moves from the theological exploration of festival to its implementation and exploration in his local church setting, which involved the creation of carnival themes, reflection on biblical stories, costuming, music, “dancing, eating and laughing,” and carrying the festival out into the community through a “closing parade” (ibid., 39). For Martin, carnival involves an important theological message: “God’s kingdom is for the oppressed, and it can come surrounded with laughter, irony, celebration and freedom. ‘The chief attitude of [carnival] is one of peaceful revolution. When the spirit rules, the kingdoms of this world are overturned’” (ibid., 42). Through his discussion and example, Martin provides a way “for developing a meaningful carnival ritual” (ibid., 45) for church and community.

References Cited

Bakhtin, Michail. 1984. Rabelais and His World. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Burke, Peter. 1990. Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, rev. ed. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate.

Duvignaud, Jean. 1976. “Festivals: a sociological approach,” Cultures 3/1: 13-25.

Harris, Max. 2003. Carnival and Other Christian Festivals: Folk Theology and Folk Performance. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Hutton, Ronald. 1996. The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press.

Krondorfer, Bjorn. 1993. “Play Theology as Discourses of Disguise,” Journal of Literature & Theology 7/4 (December): 365-380.

Manning, Frank E. 1983. “Cosmos and chaos: celebration in the modern world,” in Frank E. Manning, ed., The Celebration of Society: Perspectives on Contemporary Cultural Performance. Bowling Green, OH: Bowing Green University Press.

Martin, Chad. 1999. “Carnival: A Theology of Laughter And a Ritual for Social Change.” Worship 73/1 (January): 33-45.

Pieper, Josef. 1999. In Tune with the World: A Theory of Festivity. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press.

Santino, Jack, ed. 1994. Halloween and Festivals of Death and Life. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press.

Yinger, J. 1982. Countercultures: The Promise and the Peril of a World Turned Upside Down. New York: The Free Press.

New Ooze Article and Discussion Thread

The discussion on my first article on Burning Man and what this subculture "says" back to the emerging church continues at The Ooze, making it a hot topic. As of this post there were 90 replies and 573 views. Although in my opinion the vast majority of comments have missed the point, at least the dialogue is continuing.

The Ooze just published my second Burning Man article titled "Apocalyptic Man Ablaze." I started a discussion thread on this which can be found here. In the thread I raise the following questions from the article for reader's to consider and comment on:

1. With the post-modern preference for the embodiment of wisdom, how might Christians embody wisdom as they follow Jesus as the incarnation of divine wisdom?

2. What do you think of the Christological idea of Jesus as holy fool? Is this sacrilegious, a rediscovery of a lost biblical idea, a valid tool for sharing Jesus?

3. Harvey Cox talked about the need for festivity and fantasy in the church? Have we lost this and how might we recapture it in the present?

4. Cox calls for a metainstitution to proclaim festivity and fantasy in the world which has lost both. Can the church be this metainstitution? What forms of church might be necessary to accomplish this?

I encourage you to reflect on this and join the discussion on The Ooze. I look forward to your comments.

First Burning Man Essay on TheOoze.com

My first essay on Burning Man, "Burn, Baby, Burn, Christendom Inferno: Burning Man and the Festive Immolation of Christendom Culture and Modernity," can now be found at the emerging church site TheOoze.com. It is listed on the main page and in two installments with the first found here. It has received an initial comment, and a positive one. I hope that this exposure for the article can impact the emerging church, as well as the traditional and contemporary expressions of church as well.