San Francisco Chronicle, USA
Sep, 4, 2005
Chuck Squatriglia, Leslie Fulbright, Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writers
www.sfgate.com

---

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 12146 • Posted: Monday September 5, 2005  

---

Celebrating ‘The Burn’
A week culminates with torching the man

Black Rock City, Nev. — With the roar of a great fire fed by the wind, the 40-foot man that for the past week has been the focal point of this impromptu city went up in flames, a sacrifice to art fashioned of wood, steel and neon that set the sky alight.

More than 35,000 people gathered Saturday night in a great circle around the Burning Man for which the weeklong arts festival is named, each with his or her own interpretation of the fire’s significance.

For some, it was a primal experience bordering on the religious. For others, it spoketo the fleeting nature of art and inspiration.

And for still others, it is safe to say, it was nothing more than an excuse to ingest whatever intoxicants fell to hand, in whatever quantity that might be available.

“The man means a lot to me,” said Franz Koch, who came from Bodega Bay to this patch of cracked, dry earth in the Black Rock Desert. “I don’t know if the man means as much as the rush to the man, the primal urge. Everyone gets to cut loose in a city of freaks.”

Freaks may be too strong a term for many of those gathered here – though it definitely describes at least some of them – but “The Burn,” as it is known, had the feel of a primal ritual as everyone gathered beneath a canvas of stars for something big.

“I don’t know what to expect,” said Valerie Fantaski, a Burning Man “virgin” as first-timers are called, from Hershey, Pa. “I’m hoping that something spectacular happens.”

It was spectacular.

A barrage of fireworks erupted at 9:38 p.m., a cascade of primary bright colors rising from the funhouse maze at the base of the man. The flames quickly engulfed the base, raced past the man’s feet and toward the sky, casting a bright orange glow over the playa and sending a thick column of smoke toward the sky.

The fire that marks the zenith of Burning Man is known simply as “The Burn,” and it is to Burning Man as prom night is to high school. It is a rite of passage for the first-timers, and a time for reflection among the veterans.

And for everyone, it is cause for grand parties, fancy outfits and all- night revelry. Burners, as those who make the annual pilgrimage here are called, spend Saturday laying low and resting up for the big night, planning their outfits and reflecting on the past week.

“When the man burns, it’s like a phoenix that burns down and you take it with you into real life, all the lessons learned here about being good to people and expressing yourself,” said Miss Black Rock City 2005, Heather Newman of Seattle.

As another beautiful day on the playa, as this expanse of dry, cracked earth is called, moved toward sunset, the excitement mounted. Music blared from what seemed like every other campsite, drinks were mixed and other substances readied for the big night ahead.Some went all out and took showers – a luxury on par with caviar and champagne when you’ve spent a week on a dry and alkaline prehistoric lakebed – before donning their best costume of the week.

Anyone who wanted to see the man go up in flames had long since arrived, and the newcomers were easy to spot – their clothes were clean, their hair wasn’t caked with the fine white dust that coats everything here and their lips weren’t burned and chapped.

But amid the excitement, there was a mounting bittersweet feelingof bittersweetness, as the reality that the week-long festival is drawing to a close began to settle in, and everyone will soon be returning to the world beyond.

“When we go back out, we go back to all the things that separate us – money, class, race,” said Stephan Moore of New York City.

Many burners live by a calendar year marked by the burning of the man. To them, The Burn is New Year’s Eve.

“For me the Burn marks the culmination of all the work that leads up to Burning Man,” said Chris Zaccalini of San Francisco, who is part of Mohammed’s Mini Martini and Erotica Camp. Visitors receive chilled martinis in return for scribbling an erotic story in the owner’s book.

“I really don’t live by the regular calendar anymore,” he said.

As the sun began to set behind the mountains that surround Black Rock Desert, burners began their pilgrimage to the man. They came in groups of twos and threes or more, some on foot, some on bicycles and some aboard elaborate art cars.

Almost all of them wore costumes of some sort. A woman dressed only in expensive lingerie. A man dressed like a tiger. A couple, walking hand-in-hand, dressed like they’d just stepped off the set of the movie, “Mad Max.”

The first to arrive took their seats around 7 p.m., more than two hours before the man was to be lit. They wanted to be sure to have good seats.

The crowd was both calm, awaiting the culmination of what was for many a full week in the desert. The playa was awash in sound and color, a kaleidoscope for the senses. Most everyone wore bright glow-sticks, casting an otherworldly glow of red and green and yellow and blue over the landscape.

As the moment drew near, a hush fell over the playa, leaving it almost silent for the first time in more than a week.

And suddenly the silence was broken by the roar of a great fire, fed by the wind, and the roar of the crowd that had come so far to see it..

SFGate.com– For more stories and photographs from Burning Man, go to sfgate.com/burningman/.

---

What You Can Do From Here

---

Read More Articles On These Topics Categories: Burning Man Share, Blog About, Bookmark, or Email This Article Subscribe Religion News Blog RSS feed [What is this?] RSS by topic: Burning Man Read Another Article Previous entry: Some evacuees see religious message in Katrina Next entry: Venezuelan president accepts apology from US evangelist RNB Homepage with latest headlines Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults Find Related Books Burning Man Most Popular Today Tokyo marks 15th anniversary of subway sarin attack Cult survivor relives history of servitude in the Brisbane Christian Fellowship Cults should be given nowhere to hide FLDS sect member Merril Leroy Jessop sentenced to 75 years in prison

---

Share This Article

---

To share this page simply copy and paste one of these URL's:

• Post a link on your blog or website:
  
• Send in an email or IM:
  
• Post on a forum:
  

Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- CounterCultSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.

Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- ApologeticsSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.