FESTIVAL MADNESS

I watched the CBS News video of the Stoning Festival in India, a religious festival in Northern India, with the celebrants throwing stones at one another. My take on the event is that it is another example of summer madness. I know India is in the Southern Hemisphere and is having its winter right now. But this stoning festival is an outdoor activity.

Stoning each other is much more serious than a food fight, and can and do cause injuries. Frankly, it doesn't look attractive. It looks like groups of villagers are at war, -- though the war is supposedly good-natured.

As I watched, I recalled movies scenes of ancient and Medieval battles. I wondered how any one can consider this fun? Then I remembered football. A game in which people hurl their bodies at each other. Football probably may seem a little crazy to an outsider. Football I like, and I still can't get over the fact that the folks in that festival are hurling rocks.