Fire Crossing ceremony

Sunday morning we enjoyed a very leisurely breakfast out in our yard and one of our neighbors even stopped by and joined us for coffee.  

Though the back of our house looks pretty messy in this photo, the view of the garden and the mountain and fields is wonderful and we actually get a lot of neighbors who drop by when they see Tetsu out in his garden working or even napping.  

We took off again for the day to do some last minute shopping without getting much accomplished until...

Tetsu mentioned that he'd seen in the newspaper that there was a local ceremony being held at a temple not too far from us and did we want to check it out.  We did and though it was getting on 5:00 we crossed the fields and hills til we came to a temple that I hadn't even known about.  What an experience!!!

I actually missed the first part of the event because I stayed in the car with a sleeping Luka (and sketched of course) while Tetsu and Leiya and Tony checked out what was going on.  

Even from the car I could hear the bangs and chanting going on from the temple on a distant hill.

The ceremony was called Hi watari with the characters hi meaning "fire" and watari, meaning "crossing".  A fire crossing ceremony.  

All these "trainees" came from the temple wearing traditional monk's garb and blowing these huge conch shells.

Tetsu said that about an hour was spent purifying the area chosen for the ceremony.

An altar was set up with offerings and more chanting.

About the time the fire was set Luka woke up and we followed the plume of smoke to the ceremonial grounds.

"What is everyone doing?"

Luka got a bird's eye view of the proceedings.

And these guys really did run through the flames as part of their ritual!

There was water on hand in case of need but no one caught on fire.

The fire was then raked to the sides of the fire path and there was an announcement that the fire crossing rite would now be open to anyone who wished to participate.  Tony had no hesitation about taking off his shoes and socks and joining the line of up to that time, onlookers. 

When it was each person's turn, one of the priest's "put the spirit" into each participant and they walked across the cooling embers.  

Tony said it wasn't particularly hot and I guess since people were leading their children (sometimes holding them and one person was carrying his dog!) it must not have been too scary.  Luka declined the invitation to walk through the flames however...

My rendition...

What was special about this ceremony for me was that it wasn't geared for tourists and there weren't hordes of people milling about in a festival atmosphere, it was just a very local, very traditional ceremony that is held once a year and we just happened to hear about it.  None of my neighbors or friends even knew that such a ritual was held so nearby.  Tony said he could imagine the same ceremony being held from hundreds of years ago.

Ready to head home.

As were the monks.