.
Zamora, Spain. Penitents take part in the Procession of Silence during Holy Week: photo by Andres Kudacki/AP via The Guardian, 2 April 2015
Penitents wait inside San Francisco church to take part in “Nuestro
Senor Atado a la Columna, Maria Santisima de la Paz y San Juan
Evangelista” Holy Week procession in Arcos de la Frontera, Spain: photo by Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP via FT Photo Diary, 1 April 2015
.............,,,,,
............................. Penitents take part in a Holy Week procession in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, Monday. Hundreds of processions take place throughout Spain during the Easter Holy Week.: photo by Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP via FT Photo Diary, 31 March 2015
..........................................Nepal’s living goddess, the Kumari Devi, is carried by worshippers during a procession on the third day of the Seto Machindranath chariot festival: photo by Prakash Mathema/AFP via The Guardian, 30 March 2015
............................. Penitents take part in a Holy Week procession in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, Monday. Hundreds of processions take place throughout Spain during the Easter Holy Week.: photo by Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP via FT Photo Diary, 31 March 2015
..........................................Nepal’s living goddess, the Kumari Devi, is carried by worshippers during a procession on the third day of the Seto Machindranath chariot festival: photo by Prakash Mathema/AFP via The Guardian, 30 March 2015
......................................................An Indian Jain devotee on a horse participates in a religious rally organised on the occasion of Mahavir Jayanti in Kolkataa: photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP via FT Photo Diary, 13 March 2015
\..............................An artist has his face painted to resemble the Hindu god Shasthappan,
before performing during the Theyyam ritual in Somwarpet town in the
southern Indian state of Karnataka: photo by Abhishek N. Chinnappa/Reuters via FT Photo Diary, 13 March 2015
..........,,,,...........,,,,.................................A eunuch dances during a rally to mark the congregation of thousands
of eunuchs from different parts of India, in Jammu, India: photo by Channi Anand/AP via FT Photo Diary, 13 March 2015
....................................An Indian Sikh performs fire-breathing during a religious procession
to mark Hola Mohalla at the Gurudwara Shri Keshgarh Sahib temple at Sri
Anandpur Sahib, on Friday: photo by Shammi Mehrashammi/AFP via FT Photo Diary, 6 March 2015
.................................................................Opposition
fighters sit inside a damaged building in the rebel-held Qastal
al-Harami neighbourhood, in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo: photo by Zein Al-Rifaizein/AFP, 24 March 2015
Widows daubed in colours dance as they take part in the Holi, or
Festival of Colours, at a widows’ ashram at Vrindavan in the northern
Indian state of Uttar. Traditionally in Hindu culture, widows are
expected to renounce earthly pleasure so they do not celebrate Holi. But
women at the shelter for widows, who have been abandoned by their
families, celebrate the festival by throwing flowers and coloured
powder: photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters via FT Photo Diary, 6 March 2015
Holi, the Hindu festival of colour, is celebrated in the village of Barsana, in Uttar Pradesh, India: photo by Subodh Shetty via The Guardian, 2 April 2015
Barsane, the village near Mathura that practices male-bashing at #Holi: image via folomojo @folomojo, 22 March 2015
Thanks to everyone who came along to Holi at King's Cross. You looked AMAZING! #Holi: image via King's Cross @kingscrossN1C, 30 March
2015
#Holi at King's Cross: image via King's Cross @kingscrossN1C, 30 March 2015
Samburu warriors touch an orphaned rhino called Kilifi for the first time at Lewa wildlife conservancy in Kenya. None of the warriors had seen a rhino before and some had never seen a photo of one. The young warriors had been visiting to learn about conservation practices, as these communities hold the key to saving Africa’s great animals: photo by Ami Vitale via The Guardian, 19 March 2015
Prosecutors, lawyers and judges stand near a statue of Lady Justice during a funeral ceremony for senior Istanbul prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz: photo by Osan Kose/AFP via FT Photo Diary, 1 April 2015
Japan Airlines Co. (JAL) group companies’ new employees practice before releasing paper planes during an initiation ceremony at the company’s hangar near Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan: photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via FT Photo Diary, 1 April 2015
An aerial view of a public cemetery ahead of the Qingming Festival,
or Tomb Sweeping Day in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. The festival, which
falls on April 5 this year, is a day for the Chinese to remember and
honour their ancestors: photo by Reuters via FT Photo Diary, 26 March 2015
Robert Vossler Keeley (September 4, 1929 – January 9, 2015) had a 34-year career in the Foreign Service of the United States, from 1956 to 1989. He served three times as Ambassador: to Greece (1985–89), Zimbabwe (1980–84), and Mauritius (1976–78). In 1978–80 he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, in charge of southern and eastern Africa.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_V._Keeley
Mobile phone in the first picture. Classic!
ReplyDeleteTom,
ReplyDeleteRituals come easy to us. It is the virtues that fuck everything up. Not without nostalgia can you look behind at each of those mandatory checkpoints in life, and wonder which one felt better. Nothing inspired about that. And I can only think of one reference from George's father in Seinfeld: How about a festivus for the rest of us.
That penitent is going to have a pointy little red head in his selfie, methinks. But perhaps being different is overrated after all.
ReplyDeleteAt least the South Asian rituals that involve a bit of life lend themselves more readily to the Festival Aspect.
Any ritual that includes life, colour, and no $$ bottom line is pretty much ok by me.
But of course I'm doomed to be a housebound ritualist at best, and housebound rituals tend to be pretty drab.
There are the little domestic rituals, of course.
When you are ancient and useless and cohabit with four cats, in fact, at times it feels life is one endless ritual of tidying, peacemaking & c.
But the festivities! When do the festivities begin!?
But the festivities! When do the festivities begin!?
ReplyDeleteI think Guenon would have said: when do they end?...the carnival only makes sense against a backdrop of what isn't a carnival.
I haven't been able to find my way to the carnival proper for some time now. Does listening to the beeping sound made by idling garbage trucks count, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteThe spectacular and quite mysterious beauty of this morning's lunar event, to which I took pains to attend, seemed oddly festive in an ancient way, which I expect would have been attended communally by the native peoples who shared these hillsides with the animals before the palefaced lucre seekers showed up and desecrated everything -- but when I attempted to seize the moment and intercept a passing powerwalker chugging along furiously in serious sporting gear, so as to point out the celestial phenomenon, which for that matter was directly in front of him, though he stubbornly refused to look up at it, he failed to offer by way of response so much as a nod, nor a turn of the head, which was encased in some kind of headgear, perhaps VR, hereabouts you never know, in any case he looked a bit like My Favorite Martian, I suppose he couldn't hear me, and had no interest in any sort of reality that could not be considered virtual.
I don't know, he had some kind of goggles. Looked a bit like a sherpa, curiously enough. Plodding furiously down the Mayhem Expressway in the dead quiet no-traffic Eclipse Morning.
What I seem to be getting at is, is there such a thing as a solitary festival?