Welcome Readers,
Let me first begin this blog by narrating an anecdote. I roughly remember I was in the second standard perhaps when my school teacher was teaching me a chapter on India- Unity in Diversity. The teacher almost took a week to explain to us in detail with illustrations on how India is a culturally diverse nation and how as the citizen of India we should be proud of such a secular country where we live together, celebrate together and enjoy together. Today when I am pursuing my masters, I recall how I was filled with patriotic feelings. One of her teaching lessons was the festivals we celebrate, every year we have either Diwali, Easter, Eid ul-Fitr, Lohri, Kite-flying Day, Pongal, Rakshabandhan, Nowruz-Parsi New Year, Muharram, Onam, Navratri, Basant Panchami, Christmas, etc. All festivals are surrounded by some myths, stories, fables which encourage people to celebrate them enthusiastically. Festivals in India revolve around Lord's birthdays, traditional myths, seasonal changes, relationships, and much more. Back then, I used to believe that only my country is so diverse and ahead in celebrating each and every occasion with mammoth euphoria. But I was wrong! Take the example of this Holi festival, I never bothered myself to research this bonfire festival before writing this blog.
On the occasion of this Holi Festival, the students of the English Department were assigned a thinking activity task as a part of their Sunday Reading Activity to ponder upon this festival of Bonfire which is celebrated worldwide. It is not only India that celebrates the festival of Bonfire - (Lohri, Holi) but worldwide the Bonfire is celebrated with different purposes.
There are so many countries celebrating this festival. Alpine and Central Europe, Australia, Canada, France, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Nepal, Nordic Countries- Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slavic Europe-Czech/Slovak Republic, Turkey, United Kingdom, Scotland, United States, celebrate Bonfire.
Bonfire-
In French, bon means "good," which has led some to believe that it is the first element of the English word bonfire— a good fire. British lexicographer Samuel Johnson also offered up that etymology in his 1755 Dictionary of the English Language, in which he defined bonfire as "a fire made for some public cause of triumph or exaltation," and derived the word from the French bon and the English word fire.
The origin of the word lies in Middle English bonefire, meaning literally "a fire of bones." The earliest appearance of the word is glossed ignis ossium—Latin for "fire of bones." And a citation from the 15th century confirms that this is not just a learned folk-etymology.
"But in worshipp of seinte iohan the people woke at home & made iij maner of fyres. On was clene bones & no wode & that is callid a bone fyre. A nothir is clene wode & no bones & that is callid a wode fyre fore people to sitte & to wake there by."
—John Mirk, Liber Festivalis, 1486
In time, bonfire was also applied to other large conflagrations, such as those for the burning of yard refuse or unwanted possessions.
"Divine knowledge will make a man rejoyce, when his enemies makes a bonfire of his goods."
— Thomas Brooks, Heaven on Earth, 1654
Bonfires were also held in the worship of saints, which ignited the word's general meaning of an open-air fire around which people gathered and celebrated. (Source)
Let us have exposure to the bonfire festivals celebrated around the world.
HOLI
Firstly, if we talk about India, the bonfire festival is celebrated with religious reverence. It is about the myth of King Hiranyakasha who is narrated as a cruel King in the legendary fable. He was an oppressive Asura who attacked the heavens and thereafter kidnapped and attempted to destroy the earth goddess in Hindu mythology. According to one myth his son Prahlad, a saintly boy from the Puranas known for his piety and a devoted devotee of Vishnu prays his lord to save his life. Vishnu incarnates in the form of Narasimha, part lion and part man to destroy evil and end religious persecution and calamity on Earth, thereby restoring Dharma. Watch this video for better clarity.
Apart from this legendary tale, the changing of the season is also the reason for the celebration of this festival. The bonfire festival of India that is Holi is celebrated on full moon day in the month of Phalgun which is the month of March as per the Gregorian calendar. In an agrarian country like India, Holi is associated with the season the winter ends and spring begins. The festival also celebrates the beginning of a good spring harvest season. It lasts for a night and a day
The next morning is celebrated as Rangwali Holi (Dhuleti) – a free-for-all festival of colours, where people smear each other with colours and drench each other. Water guns and water-filled balloons are also used to play and colour each other. The festival signifies the victory of good over evil, the arrival of spring and the end of winter, and an opportunity to meet others. People are brought together to play and laugh, forget and forgive, to repair ruptured relationships. It is mainly believed to be the cultural celebration of the harvesting day and welcoming longer days.
This bonfire festival is not only celebrated in India but people from all around the world have a cultural festival of bonfire whom they have given a significance with their tradition.
LOHRI
Lohri is also celebrated in India, a cultural celebration, essentially celebrated by Sikhs and Hindus of the Indian territory of Punjab. This celebration represents the cold season of the year that is winter solstice and is a conventional greeting to the longer days. It is praised on the day not long before Makar Sankranti which is the thirteenth January of consistently.
The lit bonfire festival has its own significance, the people dance and sing-song around it, throws food in the fire, believing to leave all goods of the last year and welcome the fresh new year.
Some special food things like sesame seeds, chikki, precious stone sugar, jaggery, peanuts or potentially popcorn are given importance while offering it to the bonfire. A portion of the things is tossed into the fire while some are contributed among the visitors around evening time during the celebration as a form of holy/pious food. People wear their brightest clothes and come to dance the bhangra and gidda to the beat of the dhol.
Sankt Hans Aften
The history of this that Saint John's Day, the feast day of Saint John the Baptist, was established by the undivided Christian Church in the 4th century A.D., in honour of the birth of the Saint John the Baptist, which the Christian Bible records as being sixth months before Jesus. Within Christian theology, this carries significance as John the Baptist "was understood to be preparing the way for Jesus", with John 3:30 stating, "He must increase, but I must decrease"; this is symbolized in the fact that the "sun begins to diminish at the summer solstice and eventually increases at the winter solstice."
It is held to honour the changing of the seasons and the longest day of the year. It is a midsummer festival.
T’ar Baal
The Northumberland Village of Allendale celebrates the New Year with a unique Pagan ceremony at midnight each year. A selected, hereditary team of 45 barrel carriers known as Guisers dressed in fancy dress carry flaming whiskey barrels through the streets to the town centre where they are used to ignite a bonfire, as everyone shouts "Be Damned to He Who Throws Last". The barrels which can weigh 15 kg (30 lbs) filled with burning tar are carried by the Guisers on their heads. The Tar Barl Festival has been Allendale's way of welcoming the new year for at least 160 years.
The normally quiet village heaves with people - locals, visitors and the barrel-carrying "guisers" wearing fancy dress or a disguise. A fiery procession swarms round the Northumberland village, returning to the square just before midnight to throw its barrels on to the waiting bonfire, setting it alight.
The Burning of Zozobra
The Burning of Zozobra is a unique cultural event staged annually by the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe on the Friday before Labor Day as an exciting and fiery finale to the last days of summer. During the weeks leading up to the event, people write down their personal problems and leave them at a public office to be added to the giant’s stuffing or to the gloom box to be burned at the Zozobra’s feet.
"Zozobra is a hideous but harmless fifty-foot bogeyman marionette. He is a toothless, empty-headed facade. He has no guts and doesn't have a leg to stand on. He is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. He never wins. He moans and groans, rolls his eyes and twists his head. His mouth gapes and chomps. His arms flail about in frustration. Every year we do him in. We string him up and burn him down in ablaze of fireworks. At last, he is gone, taking with him all our troubles for another whole year. Santa Fe celebrates another victory."
- A.W. Denninger
"Burning Barrels For The Tar Barl Festival". BBC News, 2012, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-20692608. Accessed 31 March 2021.
Desk, Sentinel. "The Legends And Rituals Of Holi - Sentinelassam". Sentinelassam.Com, 2020, https://www.sentinelassam.com/melange/the-legends-and-rituals-of-holi/?infinitescroll=1. Accessed 31 March 2021.
Khan, Nabiha et al. "12 Fascinating Festivals Of Fire Around The World - Verses By A Voyager". Verses By A Voyager, 2019, https://versesbyavoyager.com/festivals-of-fire-around-the-world/. Accessed 31 March 2021.
Thank you.
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