Luke went to the Burning Man festival in Nevada, where he participated in the ritual of burning the man. There is a giant wooden sculpture of a man’s head in the center of burning man, that festival goers burn to the ground at the end. This symbolizes the end of a dreamlike experience and the purging of “negative energy that Burning Man helps cleanse, it’s a new beginning”.
Author Archives: rlederer@usc.edu
The Rainbow Serpent Festival
The Rainbow Serpent music festival takes place near Melbourne, Australia. Luke went to this festival and found that it was a way of honoring the Aboriginal culture that modern Australia destroyed years ago. Aboriginal people dance and sing in traditional performances as a way of practicing themselves and educating others on their lost culture and spirituality.
Fijian Kava
Chuck spends a lot of time in Fiji, where he owns property. He lives around villages and considers the locals his family. Every Thursday he goes to the village and drinks Kava, a Fijian ritual drink that the locals often consume to “destress after a long day in a social environment”. He sits in a circle with whoever else in the village decides to join (around 6-20 people depending on the night) on the bamboo floor of a bungalow. They take positively about each other and their lives.
Elbow Grease- Military Practical Joke
When Chuck was in the military, the higher-ups would tell the lower-ranking or newer soldiers to go somewhere and get them a tube of elbow grease. Elbow grease, of course, is not an actual thing. The more experienced, older soldiers and members of the military were in on this joke, it was a sort of initiation.
Legend of Qu Yuan
The legend of Qu Yuan… Qu Yuan was an official in the government of Chu before being exiled. While he was exiled he wrote stories and poems about his love for his homeland. This part is fact. Where the story apparently differs is how and why he died. The most common belief is that he committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River after learning of the fall of Chu. There are other beliefs that he was killed by enemies and even the river. Others believe he became lost and ran out of food, eventually “giving his body to the river”. Awu does not have a strong opinion on this, however his family taught him the suicide version.