Sunday Morning Coming Down
My husband and I are preparing to visit a friend's church this weekend. This isn't your normal, ordinary, every-day church service.
No.
It's a three-day freak out in the desert with an emphasis on Native traditions and culture, culminating in a Circle Dance, or Long Dance, that will go on with drumming all night on Saturday and end around sunrise on Sunday morning. I am fascinated with this from a sociological point of view, because the people that will be at this gathering are white. Apparently native people have gathered with them in the past and taught them their ways and ceremonies; I will try to get to the bottom of this when we get out there and meet people, but I am fairly certain that the majority of these people will be white, if not all of them. I am also somewhat curious about their former religious affiliation, because my friends, and several of their fellow Long Dancers, are bitter ex-Mormons. We have charged up the cameras, we are packing our camping gear, and we're getting our menu together.
There will be a "burning" ceremony on the first night. Whatever that is, I am sure that it is somewhat comparable to Burning Man with less emphasis on the baccanal and more emphasis on the spiritual. I recently had an epiphany that Burning Man was more of a commoner's version of what goes on at Bohemian Grove with the rich and powerful--which is people dancing around in the woods, camping for a few nights, and burning effigies of the human form. Hey! Everyone does it--and as I recall there is also some kind of burning man ceremony in Santa Fe in July, I think. This "burning man" thing is a Native ceremony--I'll have to Wiki this (my favorite new past time...Wikipedia).
There will be various and sundry purification ceremonies, which include sweat lodges and swims in a nearby lake. Regardless of religion, I have always been curious about the sweat lodge traditions and I am pleased that I will be part of one finally. I helped cut the willow branches that will be used in the lodge construction and ceremony.
Then the dance, which I know nothing about, except that it goes on all night, and you move in a circle. My husband has not decided if he will participate in this aspect of the gathering, and the more I think on it, perhaps I would do well to find out more when I got there before committing to dance all night in something that may not be necessary or meaningful for me. That will be decided on location.
Then on Sunday there is a pot luck brunch and a "give-away," which is a gift exchange. There are no prohibitions on the gifts. It can be a ratty t-shirt or a $100 bill. If it's special to you, then it's all the more honorable for you to give it away.
We have always been curious to attend these dances, but our schedule has always stopped us; usually we're too busy to leave our store. Not so this time. Now that we are moving, we don't want to pass up this last chance to see just what in the heck our friends do at their "church." Plus, it's a great reason to go camping. I am not ruling out having a religious experience; however, I must add that I am more interested in this from a purely experiential point of view. It will be just one more crazy story to tell about that time that we lived in Utah...
No.
It's a three-day freak out in the desert with an emphasis on Native traditions and culture, culminating in a Circle Dance, or Long Dance, that will go on with drumming all night on Saturday and end around sunrise on Sunday morning. I am fascinated with this from a sociological point of view, because the people that will be at this gathering are white. Apparently native people have gathered with them in the past and taught them their ways and ceremonies; I will try to get to the bottom of this when we get out there and meet people, but I am fairly certain that the majority of these people will be white, if not all of them. I am also somewhat curious about their former religious affiliation, because my friends, and several of their fellow Long Dancers, are bitter ex-Mormons. We have charged up the cameras, we are packing our camping gear, and we're getting our menu together.
There will be a "burning" ceremony on the first night. Whatever that is, I am sure that it is somewhat comparable to Burning Man with less emphasis on the baccanal and more emphasis on the spiritual. I recently had an epiphany that Burning Man was more of a commoner's version of what goes on at Bohemian Grove with the rich and powerful--which is people dancing around in the woods, camping for a few nights, and burning effigies of the human form. Hey! Everyone does it--and as I recall there is also some kind of burning man ceremony in Santa Fe in July, I think. This "burning man" thing is a Native ceremony--I'll have to Wiki this (my favorite new past time...Wikipedia).
There will be various and sundry purification ceremonies, which include sweat lodges and swims in a nearby lake. Regardless of religion, I have always been curious about the sweat lodge traditions and I am pleased that I will be part of one finally. I helped cut the willow branches that will be used in the lodge construction and ceremony.
Then the dance, which I know nothing about, except that it goes on all night, and you move in a circle. My husband has not decided if he will participate in this aspect of the gathering, and the more I think on it, perhaps I would do well to find out more when I got there before committing to dance all night in something that may not be necessary or meaningful for me. That will be decided on location.
Then on Sunday there is a pot luck brunch and a "give-away," which is a gift exchange. There are no prohibitions on the gifts. It can be a ratty t-shirt or a $100 bill. If it's special to you, then it's all the more honorable for you to give it away.
We have always been curious to attend these dances, but our schedule has always stopped us; usually we're too busy to leave our store. Not so this time. Now that we are moving, we don't want to pass up this last chance to see just what in the heck our friends do at their "church." Plus, it's a great reason to go camping. I am not ruling out having a religious experience; however, I must add that I am more interested in this from a purely experiential point of view. It will be just one more crazy story to tell about that time that we lived in Utah...
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