The solstice is coming. I remember all too well the fire rings at the beach in the winter. We would drag in stacks of wood pallets, as many as we could find, never enough considering how well guarded they were down there in SoCal. We would always send somebody ahead earlier in the day, tough duty on a state beach, cooler full of beer, sunset full of toxins and pollutants, always a wonderful sight to see. But we would eventually congregate in mass come dark, boom boxes blaring, food sizzling on hibachis or charcoal grills, beers and other libations escalating the level of conversation and merriment. And while it wasn't necessarily the thing to do each and every time the longest night of the year came about, there would always be someone in the crowd who would want to test out the level of their testosterone and leap over the flames. I never saw burning calzones to mark the occasion but I am sure that there were plenty of singed hairs about to talk about in the morning.
I can't imagine life in that region without fire pits for those last summer nights, for those wildly cold winter holy days, for the evenings in the spring and the fall when the air would be soft and warm and not quite seasonally uncomfortable. I think of all the rites of passage and all the rituals of growing up that would be lost if those rings went away. Sure, there will always be fools who jump over blazing pallet fires. Those same fools will always sing too loud, laugh to heartily, behave too boorishly and find ways to piss off the neighbors, but then again, without them we would have no reason to feel okay about behaving wickedly and foolishly on the Feast of Fools or the Winter Solstice. We would have no right to our rites, to our revels, to our fire gods. We would wonder what the fuss is about and lose connection to the real reasons why we light fires in the night and wish to be one with Thor and Bacchus and the rest of the cooler, wilder and more sympathetically fun gods.
So here's to the solstice, to fire circles and to the great cycles of life!
Salud!
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-newport-fire-pits28-2009oct28,0,4525544.story
I can't imagine life in that region without fire pits for those last summer nights, for those wildly cold winter holy days, for the evenings in the spring and the fall when the air would be soft and warm and not quite seasonally uncomfortable. I think of all the rites of passage and all the rituals of growing up that would be lost if those rings went away. Sure, there will always be fools who jump over blazing pallet fires. Those same fools will always sing too loud, laugh to heartily, behave too boorishly and find ways to piss off the neighbors, but then again, without them we would have no reason to feel okay about behaving wickedly and foolishly on the Feast of Fools or the Winter Solstice. We would have no right to our rites, to our revels, to our fire gods. We would wonder what the fuss is about and lose connection to the real reasons why we light fires in the night and wish to be one with Thor and Bacchus and the rest of the cooler, wilder and more sympathetically fun gods.
So here's to the solstice, to fire circles and to the great cycles of life!
Salud!
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-newport-fire-pits28-2009oct28,0,4525544.story
1 comment:
I would love to be able to do that! I've often wished I was able to put a firepit in the yard. There is something so cleansing about it. We use to have them back when I was younger, and indeed, there was always someone who would jump the fire. I was one of them... LOL. But it's such a relaxed, FUN way to celebrate the longest, coldest night of the year!
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