At dusk, the peace circle began. Hundreds of people held hands in a circle while an Amis woman chanted along with African drumming and didgeridoos. It was an amazing sight to see hundreds of hands held channeling their positive energies to bringing peace on earth. I felt like I found the hippy in me and couldn’t help but feel energized by the music, the love, the splattery mud. I think we will be back next year.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Peace, Love, and Mud, by Chieni McCullough
It had been raining for days in Taipei but I was praying for a miracle that it would stop for the weekend. This was the weekend of the Peace Festival, an event that celebrates music, arts, and all that’s good with humanity, and I had been looking forward to it for weeks! My prayers went unanswered as the skies remained dark and clouds heavy with rain throughout my journey to Long Tan. As soon as I got there, however, I was glad I made the trek. The atmosphere was definitely full of peace, love, and surprisingly pleasant mud. A funky blues band was playing on stage, the grassy field in front of it was quickly turning into a muddy pool with a few people dancing to the rhythm of the band and the rain. Then there were rows and rows of campers in tents who braved the weather, and rows of booths selling food and beer. My husband joked that this was the largest gathering of foreigners in Taiwan that he had ever seen. I’ve never been to Woodstock but I imagine that the general good vibrations and images were not so different here from the original event some decades ago.
At dusk, the peace circle began. Hundreds of people held hands in a circle while an Amis woman chanted along with African drumming and didgeridoos. It was an amazing sight to see hundreds of hands held channeling their positive energies to bringing peace on earth. I felt like I found the hippy in me and couldn’t help but feel energized by the music, the love, the splattery mud. I think we will be back next year.
At dusk, the peace circle began. Hundreds of people held hands in a circle while an Amis woman chanted along with African drumming and didgeridoos. It was an amazing sight to see hundreds of hands held channeling their positive energies to bringing peace on earth. I felt like I found the hippy in me and couldn’t help but feel energized by the music, the love, the splattery mud. I think we will be back next year.
