Paper short abstract:

In occasion of the fire-walking ritual, the general prohibition of making physical contact with fire is violated. In La Réunion, what does this transgression mean and which are the effects on the practitioners for breaking this social rule?

Paper long abstract:

According to Bachelard, fire is firstly a social reality than a natural one. Indeed, in the general knowledge, fire is an object of respect and fear since our first social learning of fire is that we must not touch it, otherwise we will be burned. In La Réunion, a French overseas department and a territory of the European Union in the Indian Ocean, some Réunioneses overpass this social prohibition. In occasion of the fire-walking festival, a Hindu annual ritual cycle, after eighteen days of preparation, abstinence and fasting, the practitioners walk barefoot across a pit filled with hot embers. The individuals choose deliberately to submit themselves to fire abandoning a secure space and facing risk. The implication in the rite is never minor. It is a choice determined by an underlying desire – more or less conscious – of changing a situation which the practitioner wishes to improve, or of a problem which the devotee wants to solve. In preparation for the event, the fire-walker dives deep into the intimate and the ritual has an impact on his future life. Fire-walking, by breaking the general social prohibition of fire, is in La Réunion one of the most dread ritual acts but for this reason it is also a supreme commitment of a great efficaciousness.