Year: 2014

Sure, we’ve all ended up in some relationships with dogs (well, I have anyway) but this is a pretty literal interpretation of the word.

18-year-old Mangli Munda was lovely in her full wedding attire The groom was escorted in style, chauffeured no less, to the ceremony, himself decked out in full attire. But he’s a dog. Mangli wasn’t exactly thrilled about it, but that’s what ya do in rural India when you’re born under a bad planetary alignment.

“I am marrying a dog because the village elders believe that my evil spell will be passed on to the dog,” she explained. “After that is done, the man I will marry will have a long life.” Apparently, the alignment in question that Mangli was born under can lead to her spouse having a shortened lifespan. “My villagers say that many girls like me have followed this ritual and they have gotten rid of their evil spells and are living happy lives now,” she said. “I will marry a man one day. It is the dream of every girl to marry a prince charming. So I am also waiting for my prince.”

This isn’t an uncommon ritual. “Many weddings like this have taken place in our village and also the other neighboring villages,” said Mangli’s father. “This is a custom we thoroughly believe in.” They even treated the marriage completely seriously, following all marriage customs and spending a traditional amount of money on it. “We respect the dog as much as we would respect a normal groom,” Mangli’s mother explained, “But that is the only way we can get rid of her bad luck and ensure the benevolence of the village.”

No worries for the dog; he’ll continue to live on as the family’s pet, probably a little baffled about the big day but no worse for wear. Mangli hopefully will go on to find a man who isn’t intimidated by her dating history.

I know it’s not unusual to have trouble letting our loved ones go when they pass away, but this seems to be taking it a bit far.

The Indonesian people known as the Toraja have a yearly ritual called MaiNene, translated as “The Ceremony of Cleaning Corpses” where every August families dig up the bodies of their dead relatives, wash them, groom them, put them in fancy new clothes, and walk them around their villages. According to their belief system, a polytheistic animistic religion called aluk, or The Way, they believe that death doesn’t happen suddenly, so much as it is an extended process as the souls gradually work towards the afterlife (Puya). If a person was killed away from home, the family will go to the location they died and walk the corpse all the way back to their village to help as part of their progression towards Puya. The yearly ritual is because they believe once a year the souls must return to their home village…and who wants to wake up in a coffin with the same clothes you’ve been wearing for the past year?

The Toraja have many elaborate rituals involving death, from extensive death feasts (normally just for noblemen) that can last days and attract thousands, to a gigantic water buffalo slaughter (where children catch their spurting blood in bamboo tubes), to elaborate hanging graveyards where colorful corpses decorate the faces of cliffs.

Death is the great mystery and every culture seems to have its own set of rituals (or many different rituals) to honor the passing of their loved ones. The Toraja seem to make us all look overly succinct (except maybe the ancient Egyptians) when it comes to lengthy, elaborate ritualism. To be fair to them, they used to also have lengthy, elaborate life rituals, but they have diminished since non-members of their religion were prohibited from attending the life rituals (but not the death ones) and Dutch missionaries converted a lot of the locals to Christianity.  Which is a whole ‘nuther discussion.

You can go see all of this for yourself. Ever since a National Geographic special covering the funeral of a rich nobleman in 1976 and a museum tour in North America of Torajan art, the area has become a huge tourist attraction for folks who’ve been to Bali and want to see more of the ‘primitive and wild’ Indonesia. There was even a cycling tour through it in 2012. Maybe not as ‘primitive and wild’ as it once was, but Tana Toraja is still unlike anywhere else on Earth.

Come on now. Zombie walks and the like are so 5 years ago. Why not go classic and contact the UK based company Chili Sauce who’ll kit you out in paramilitary gear, give you basic training, and set you and your team up against a crew of bloodthirsty werewolves?

You’ll be placed in the darkened forests of Droitwitch, England and given the premise for your horrific evening:

Deep in the heart of the countryside, near Birmingham, Farmers have reported unusual losses of livestock, and missing person reports are flooding the local papers. Rumors surfaced of a Special Ops team disappearing 24 months ago – the only clues left were a garbled radio message, and a mangled corpse.

An early morning drop off at the location starts your day (if you chose the shorter few hours option) or the long, long evening (if you went for the big werewolf kahuna package). The basic military training course includes being taught how to use automatic weapons, shotguns, explosive booby traps and more: all skills you’ll need to survive the night.

The official page says you’ve got a ‘slim chance of survival’, but hell, you knew that when you accepted the mission. But who knows, maybe you’ll get an easy one.

HAHAHAHA! No, just kidding, you’re totally gonna be werewolf chow.

The Bard’s plays have always been subject to reinterpretation. Both theatrical and film productions have set his works in a variety of different time periods, adapting the material to the new settings appropriately. Even my high school did a performance of “The Taming of the Shrew” set in the 1950’s. But The Drunk Shakespeare Society in NYC have found an angle I’m not sure the bard would have approved of.

The idea is that both the performers and the audience is kinda drunk and the alcohol weaves its way into the storyline, often even involving the audience interactively with the group, getting to change the story, demand the performers all take shots, and even play limited roles themselves. Weirdly, there’s multiple groups doing this now, going from bar to bar and performing famous scenes from Shakespeare with their audience in tow, often baffling patrons at the bars in question with their sudsy renditions.

You can check out a video at the link of one of the groups, Shotspeare, teasing their performance. The shows often feature drinking games with the audience and even karaoke with the performers. Which begs the question: what’s left to do that we haven’t found a way to infuse with drinking? Look for this to appear in other cities soon as well, as it seems to be a big hit in NYC. Can’t believe Austin, TX didn’t come up with it first.