The Great Big Fire

[egypturnash]

On the way back from the store, Rik and I got to discussing Christmas. Neither of us is a fan - it's this huge lump of forced "cheer" and consumption that squats over the end of the year like a vicious, unfriendly spider, celebrating a religion we don't believe in. It's a giant minefield of social awkwardness, with all these people giving you gifts that you then have to somehow reciprocate.

But a few years in Boston have taught me the true misery of winter, and the real meaning of Christmas: we need to do something around the winter solstice, to celebrate the fact that it's not getting any worse than this, that the sun is coming back. We need to remind ourselves of color and light without this giant potlach we spend a month and a half preparing for.

So, to that end, we propose a new holiday.

The Great Big Fire.

The Great Big Fire is exactly what it sounds like: get together with some friends on the 25th of December and burn some shit. Bring yourself, bring some booze, bring some food, bring whatever intoxicants you like, bring shit to throw on the fire. Bring junk you have, no longer want, and can't work up the effort to dispose of "properly" - it's fuel for the Great Big Fire now! Anyone gauche enough to think this is Christmas and bring a present or five is politely informed that they, too, have brought fuel for the Great Big Fire : "Oooh, thanks for the underwear, Mom! This'll look amazing burning on the Great Big Fire!"

I suspect it's too late to negotiate for having a Great Big Fire this year, but we so need to do this next year once we're out in Seattle.

Comments

[read-alicia.livejournal.com]

Seattle doesn't seem to even allow leaf burning but I don't know about the outskirts. You could ping some of the local pagan folks (via beetiger or I could ask spinningwheels) though to see if they can point you to any local land where bonfires may occur.

of course, you'd need someone experienced with handling large fires as well.

[waywind.livejournal.com]

Seattle and its whole county has some of the worst smog in the world, that's why. Fireplaces are only to be used if it's your only form of heat.

However, people owning large properties in rural areas, farms and stuff, can have a burn permit, and they can make bonfires whenever they like. I've been to a couple of those. Bonfires and fireworks on most ocean beaches are OK too, so long as the fires are way out in the empty part of the estuary, and kept far, far away from the dunes and flora and fauna and other things that would be sad if they caught on fire.

[waywind.livejournal.com]

Also, Seattle already has a December bonfire tradition, some 50 years old. ^_^

But... it happens earlier in the month... and it involves listening to amplified Christmas music projected from a cruise ship. Not really the same philosophy as THE GREAT BIG FIRE.

[enui-iune.livejournal.com]

but if you do that on Xmas then what you do on New Year's Eve?

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

THE GREAT BIG ORGY

[enui-iune.livejournal.com]

but if you do that on New Year's Eve then what you do on New Year's Day?

[zeeth_kyrah]

The Glorious Hangover, of course.

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

Hm, some things that need to burn don't burn safely. Bonus, though, for bringing substances that make the fire burn in non-typical colors. Booze and fire go well together.

[coyoteseven.livejournal.com]

If this actually hits it off and gets popular, I predict it will soon be rechristened as "Burning Man East".

[zrath.livejournal.com]

That's what I was thinking!
Peggers is trying to start her own Burning Man(tm)! :D

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

Copies of books by the right-wing nutbag of your choice acceptable?

[zeeth_kyrah]

Bought or stolen?
Better yet, bought from a second-hand book shop, where the money goes to a local business instead of the author or publisher.

I got an idea!

[orb2069.livejournal.com]

Rush Limbaugh's "wildly inaccurate (http://info-pollution.com/rush.htm") books have been available at every 2nd hand bookstore, library thrift sale and Goodwill I've been to in the last three years. A tour around the area cleaning them all up before somebody picks them up by accident or they're donated to a shelter somewhere would probably be a civic service.

[wolflahti.livejournal.com]

Seattle could definitely use another fire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Seattle_fire).

In Which Your Obedient Serpent Ruins Everything

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Bring junk you have, no longer want, and can't work up the effort to dispose of "properly" - it's fuel for the Great Big Fire now!

Your Obedient Earth Systems Science major imagines the toxins in the air from all the plastic junk and batteries and... AUUUUUUUGH!!!

Re: In Which Your Obedient Serpent Ruins Everything

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

You know, this is so typical and so bad: my first thoughts were of the atmospheric carbon totals, and of what we could actually _usefully_ burn rather than recycle. They were not of "we should make sure nobody dies from inhaling the smoke".

Re: In Which Your Obedient Serpent Ruins Everything

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the one caveat, the GBF might only accept sanely-burnable junk. Which also makes the "OH THANKS FOR THE FUEL" response to people trying to force Christmas gifts on you problematic… Something to ponder on in the coming year, I suppose.

Re: In Which Your Obedient Serpent Ruins Everything

[waywind.livejournal.com]

It could just be something that you *say* to them, and then you could later secretly dispose of the junk in a way that is actually sane.

[eclective.livejournal.com]

Where I come from, this happens on November the 5th and is called "Bonfire Night". Great Big Fire, yummy warming heartening snacks, fireworks, and thassabout it. I miss going to those, so much.

I'm always booked for Christmas proper, but if you ever do this sometime other than the 25th, I'd love to come over if I'm invited. Like I said, I fucking miss Bonfire Night, because all my friends are across the pond and no one there celebrates it.

[ab3nd.livejournal.com]

I actually posted a rant about this myself a few weeks ago. Practical upshot is that I'm probably not going to be celebrating any holidays next year that I didn't make up.

I'm'a steal your idea. Now I just need plans for the other solstice and the equinoxes.

[relee.livejournal.com]

What about eat chocolate untill you barf day?

[ab3nd.livejournal.com]

There are the currently observed Cheap Candy Days, on February 15th and November 1st.

[relee.livejournal.com]

There's also adorable bunny and chickie day, and there's lots of chocolate afterwards. That one is hard to predict though because it's assigned based on an arcane formula and an ancient lunar calendar.

[zeeth_kyrah]

The formula's not that arcane, but it does vary depending on denomination.

[relee.livejournal.com]

Gosh, somehow I thought you liked Forced Cheer. Maybe that's just me willing my own desires onto you. ^.^


I think having a great big fire is ideal for every holiday. It's certainly a christmas tradition for my family.

Incidentally, you should cut lengths of green garden hose and put them inside a copper pipe, and throw that into the fire. It turns the fire rainbow colours. <3

[paka.livejournal.com]

they, too, have brought fuel for the Great Big Fire

This reminds me of a slouchy badly ADD raver kid who told me that when he got out, he doused his uniform with lighter fluid and danced around it in the altogether while it burned.

And yeah! BURNING SHIT! OH YEAH!

[waywind.livejournal.com]

*puzzled for a while*

...OH! He took the uniform OFF FIRST! I get it.

[pseudomanitou.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see this tradition brought back, sans-Cincinnati of course...

http://www.enquirer.com/columns/knip/1998/10/102098jk.html
...specifically, the 'Burn Your Bad Art Bonfire' party.

[somnialcat.livejournal.com]

I like this idea. We have too many holidays about acquisition and consumption. Not enough about cleansing and creating. I'd suggest, though, that the fire itself could be symbolic and the purging actually a redistribution, which would be something more akin to Boxing Day. With fire.