To understand the significance of this act, one has to look at the
ritual of burning effigies in general and the specifically
the Burning Man Festival held annually in Nevada.
Burning effigies is as old as history. Every year in India during
the Navaratri festival in September-October, Hindus burn the
effigy of the demon King Ravana who kidnapped Sita, the wife
of Lord Rama. The English burn the effigy of Guy Fawkes every
year on the 5th of November. Fawkes, unsuccessfully, tried to
blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605.
While these effigies are usually made of straw and cloth, the
French went for the real thing and burned a teenager at the
stakes. The girl named Joan was a peasant and she said that she
was communicating with the archangel Michael, and this
bothered the church. As it happened that was the first and the
last.
The temple being set on fire watched by over 10,000 people.
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