The strangest religious ritual in the world, the fire festival custom in the Fiji Islands
In the Fiji Islands in the Pacific Ocean, there is a beautiful but small island. This inconspicuous island is famous for holding the world's strangest religious ceremony every year by the islanders. This is the fire-dancing ceremony. The night before each fire-dancing ceremony held on the island, those preparing to participate first prayed to the water god for a night. Other people preparing laid a layer of stone at the bottom of an earthen pit 23 feet long, 92 feet wide, and 5 feet deep. Finally, another layer of wood was laid, which was lit and burned throughout the night.
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Due to the heat, people watching the fire the next day needed to pull out the burning wood with a long pole and smooth the hot stones. Under the leadership of the leader, the people participating in the fire jumped into the fire pit without hesitation and walked around in a circle. They were naked with their feet and no expression of pain on their faces. Finally, they walked out of the fire pit from the starting point and returned to the hut. Then others cheered loudly and the ceremony ended. This thrilling fire-dancing ceremony stunned experts. Locals said that if firewalkers are mentally and mentally prepared, they will not be burned. If they are not prepared enough, the results will be unimaginable.
In 1940, a firewalker was severely burned and his legs were cut off. When Dr. Wright from Philadelphia, USA, visited the fire-dancing ceremony, he found that the so-called preparation was not about putting any protection on his feet. After careful inspection, Dr. Wright found that before the fire-dancing, they were very sensitive to cigarette butts and needle needles. After the fire-dancing, their feet were covered with fire ash, but none of them were burned or blisters. The leader explained: "Hundreds of children sent by the water god fell on the rocks, and the people walking on the fire were just walking on the back of cool children."
The process of firewalking at the Bishop Museum of Honolulu, renowned ethnographer Dr. Brigham is one of the few Westerners to perform traditional firewalking. One day in 1880, he learned that a new lava flow had appeared near Kilauya Volcano, and decided that it was a good opportunity to experience the fire. After participating in the fire dance, he described the fire dance process: "The molten rock sprayed out from several cracks, and I felt that it was hotter than the molten furnace. The surface of the molten rock has been burned black. A friend of ours was walking quickly on the surprisingly hot rock surface. The seam of my boot was burned and my face and body felt very hot, but my feet didn't feel hot at all. And there wasn't even a blister."
In 1889, on the island of Ralotonga in the South Pacific, the British personality Jayne visited school and had an unusual fire-dancing experience. At that time, he was the British representative there. When the indigenous people walked through the scorching stone formation through the fire, the leader said to him and his three British friends,"Pass on my supernatural power to you, and you can walk through the fire." Colonel Gerjain and the others immediately took off their shoes and socks and walked through the scorching stone formation. Thirty minutes later, they still couldn't believe that they could walk through the fire and tried to measure the temperature of the stone formation. When the indigenous leader heard this, he threw a string of huge green red banana leaves on his body on a stone, and the leaves immediately burned. The British were still amazed by what they had experienced later.
The most surprising thing about the fire-dancing performance is that there was a person named Julianne Xavier Chabert in the 19th century. According to legend, he was extremely capable and varied. He was famous for his performance undergoing high-profile and highly toxic experiments. He once squatted in a stove at nearly 100 degrees Celsius and swallowed the deadly toxic liquid that would make ordinary people die. In fact, these mysterious fire-fighting behaviors are not unprecedented. They are popular all over the world and have a history of thousands of years. Even today, they are still very popular in India, Malaysia, Japan, the Fiji Islands, Hawaii, the Philippines, New Zealand and other places. Although walking on hot rocks is impossible according to common sense. Scientists still do not have an appropriate explanation, but only vaguely say that this is a supernatural force.
Related introduction to the Fire Dance Festival
The Festival of Fire is a day when Hindu believers express their reverence for the goddess Mahhala. Devout believers only eat vegetarian food for three days in a row. Many believers only use one meal a day and use the ground as a table to show their remorse. In order to express their unswerving piety, the believers stepped barefoot through a 4-meter-long hot coal pile. The blessing ceremony begins at 2 a.m., and the fire-dancing ceremony is held at 2 p.m. The most lively place is Mariamman Hindu Temple on Nanqiao Road. The religious rites in ancient India began. Sorcerers danced barefoot on the hot pebbles that were burned red, muttering words and asking for the protection of the gods. Beads of sweat fell on the hot pebbles, splashing smoke and sparks repeatedly, but the wizard looked calm and danced lightly. Is there really a supernatural power protecting him?
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at the Harapa cultural site. Archaeologists have discovered a seal more than 4000 years old, with characters engraved on it dancing on the fire. What are they dancing about? Through research, scholars have discovered that it is a dance dance full of magical colors. Ancient India was a country full of mythology, and dance was no exception. Dance is believed to have been created by God in India, and the dancer's sole purpose is to please God. Its original form, probably originated in ancient sacrificial ceremonies when people dance. On the one hand, they express their devotion to God and on the other hand, they express their prayers to God. For example, peace, rain, etc., of course, it is also the expression of people's joy. According to Hindu legends, there is no dance in the world, but it can only be said to have it in the sky. How can we hear it in the world?
One day, the thunderstorm god Indra asked the fairy Urworthy to dance in the sky. The Ulworthy man was dancing, but her heart was silently churning with her love for another immortal, Jainde. She couldn't help but make a wink at Jainde. As a result, he violated the rules of heaven and was punished to live in the world. Jia Yunde was also demoted because of his involvement and driven to the earth to be made into a bamboo tree. But the god finally gave them a chance and promised that if the two of them could meet again on earth, they could both return to heaven. Urworthy came to the world and brought beautiful dances to the world. Her dancing skills conquered everyone, and her name spread throughout the world. On a festival, people gave her a bamboo pole to express their gratitude to her. Fortunately, this bamboo pole was transformed by her beloved lover Jain.
The punishment forended. The two of them did return to heaven, and the dance spread among the world from then on. Dance is also an art form of persuasion in India, and there is also a myth and legend here. It is said that in ancient times, when the two eras were exchanged, ordinary people became infected with various bad habits, so people asked Brahma to give the world a toy that could not only be seen but also be heard, so that ordinary people's interest could be diverted away from the bad habits. Brahma finally decided to give mortals the fifth Vedas. This Veda is the Dramatic Veda, which contains all the moral essence of the world. Whenever disease and disaster strike, they dig a big pit in the empty field. Place a large number of chopped wood and tree trunks in the pit, which is piled with pebbles. Then light the chopped wood and tree trunks and burn them for several hours until the temperature of the pebbles reaches several hundred degrees Celsius.
The wizard danced barefooted on the hot pebbles, muttering words, asking the gods for blessing and rescue. They thought that through this form of dance sacrifice, they could expel evil spirits and eliminate disasters and treat diseases. The wizard danced lightly on the hot pebbles, with a calm expression, without any expression of being burned or hurt. Sweat fell on the hot pebbles, splashing smoke and sparks repeatedly. At the end of the dance, the leafy branches were thrown onto the pebbles in the pit and burned to ashes in a short time. However, the firewalker did not apply anything to prevent scalding on the soles of his feet, and he stepped on the hot pebbles barefoot without any burns. Did they really receive God's blessing or perform some magic? Is there really a supernatural power protecting them from burns? This is simply unbelievable.
As time went by, the ritual of dancing fire gradually spread to other countries and regions in the world. Today, it is also quite popular in Iran, the Balkans in Europe, the Fiji Islands in the Pacific, Suriname in South America and some tribes in Africa. Some ethnic groups perform fire dancing not as a religious ritual, but as a traditional folk skill. Whenever dusk approaches, on the embers of the bonfire, performers dance with bare feet on the hot charcoal fire, dancing rhythmically to the beat of folk music. The hot charcoal fire shines in the night. Why won't my feet get burned when it goes off? From ancient times to the present, scientists have discussed and studied this mystery, and put forward many speculations and explanations. There are different opinions and heated debates, but in the end they have not been able to come up with a convincing answer.