SHIV RATRI EVE
Shiv Ratri is a celebration of Shiva, whose lingam, black stone symbolic phallic image, is in the holiest spot of Varanasi, the Golden Temple. All pilgrims to Varanasi during their time here visit the Golden Temple, waiting in long, police guarded lines to enter with their leaf plate of flowers and and other offerings in their hands to enter the divine presence of Shiva.
Two nights ago, on the night before Shiv Ratri a ritual pilgrimage by young men happens that we have asked about but don’t really understand. But this is what we have been told and what we saw. Thousands of young men in a continous parade make an all night pilgrimage from the Ganges at Desasvamedh Ghat where they bathe and then to the Golden Temple and then on to 12 other Shiva temples in Varanasi. The walk is said to be 100 kilometres or about 60 miles which doesn’t seem possible since they are all barefoot with their feet and lower legs coated with a red oily substance. They are said to be offered refreshments all the way along the way including plenty of bhang (pot) lassis. In any case they are high as can be, often shouting loudly and chanting and appear to be in a state of frenzied excitement as they walk rapidly, often bunched into tight groups as they squeeze through narrow gateways. The street below our guest house is filled with clumps of boys, with headbands on their heads and bright scarves tied around their waist, urging each other on as is the wide flat space at the top of the ghats just beyond our road in a river of boys that goes on and on and on.
We are told that they walk all night. The fast walkers complete the pilgrimage by the early afternoon and the slow walkers by late in the afternoon, almost a 24 hour pilgrimage.
We have been here several times for this strange ritual without understanding it or quite believing what we are told.
I have no good photographs of rushing throngs because the light is poor and because it the rush of bodies and the whooping that is so intense and still photographs don’t catch it.
We are certainly clueless outsiders.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 