November festivals (part 6)
Today is the last day of October and one last day to look at November festivals that you can get to during your holiday.
Cooper Capers – Merwin Village Rd, Ariel, Washington, USA
This event takes place every five years and it’s an interesting one to say the least. It revolves around a four decade old hijacking investigation in which a nondescript man held up a Boeing 727 and then parachuted into the night with two hundred thousand dollars strapped to his waist. He was known as DB Cooper and neither he nor the money have ever been found.
Every five years, a bunch of conspiracy theorists and storyteller gather in the small town and exchange their ideas about what happened to Cooper. The interesting this is that there is a prize given out to the most imaginative hypothesis on the fugitive’s whereabouts. There is a lookalike competition and also parachute jumps, obviously.
The next event doesn’t take place till 2016 though, but you can check out the little town of Ariel anyway because the surrounding landscape and panoramas are wonderful indeed.
Perang Topat (Rice Cake War) – Lingsar, Lombok, Indonesia
This interesting little harvest festival has resident of Lombok – both Hindu and Muslim – come together to pelt each other with boiled rice. A bit of a weird kind of harvest festival, hopefully the rice crop is plentifull.
This organized ‘food fight’ takes actually a whole week of preparation and it takes place at the Pura Lingsar. This is the 18th-century temple was built by Hindus however the compound also contains the Kemaliq, a Muslim shrine.
The two groups perform a Pijawali ritual through which you commemorate both the temple’s anniversary as well as give thanks for the harvest.
The good-natured fight begins and ends, with some of the leftover ‘ammo’ then being distributed among the participants and spectators with the rest being buried
