Went on a walking tour this weekend around Oxley Rise. Went inside the Chesed-El synagogue, which was built by Manasseh Meyer a little over 100 years ago, and which is very pretty. It also has an excellent collection of Torah scrolls. Also wandered through a neighbouring church before moving on to the nearby Hindu temple for the final night of Navarathri.
This time they had a big silver statue of a man on a horse, with a lance, which they hoisted atop their shoulders with the aid of long wooden poles. It was paraded outside, while a priest stood atop and shot wooden arrows into the crowd. Apparently it's good luck to catch them, and there was quite a scramble each time one landed - rather like Trent Reznor throwing pieces of broken guitar into the audience.
I bought a wooden spear, and got it blessed at one of the shrines. Got a smudge of ash on my forehead for my troubles too! There was a queue of people waiting to enter a small temporary pagoda, where they poke a banana tree with their spears. Really. I kind of wanted to go through the whole process, but the queue went all the way around the building. Maybe I'll buy a banana, and lance it with the spear.
1 comment:
You gotta wonder how these traditions got started. Were they just really bored one day, and decided it'd be cool to jab a banana tree with their spears? ...And they had SO MUCH fun they decided to make it an annual event?
"Dude, remember when we poked that tree??"
"YEAH, that was AWESOME, lets do it again!!"
Post a Comment