A temple burned on the National Mall last year as part of Catharsis. (Photo by Benjamin Strahs)

Update (11/11): A judge denied the request for an injunction, and the larger temple burning ceremony won’t take place. According to Catharsis organizer and attorney Robert Haeford, they are planning three smaller burns instead. They will symbolize the “sun, egg, and moon representing the passage of time an rebirth,” he said via text, expressing optimism about the future of the event. “We’re confident that if and when we have more time to share our expertise and history of safe burns on federal lands for decades, both the park and the court will change their position. This is new territory for them so this initial hesitancy is not entirely unexpected.”

Original:

After the National Park Service denied them a permit for a large, controlled blaze on the National Mall, organizers of a vigil for healing are suing to allow what they say is a ritual experience protected by the first amendment.

Specifically, the group behind Catharsis on the Mall planned to burn a large temple structure near the Washington Monument as a way to help event-goers heal from trauma.

With preparations already underway on the Mall, passersby distraught by the election of Donald Trump to the country’s highest office have already reacted to the message. “We have had people streaming in to our vigil since election night in tears, telling us they really need this,” says Adam Eidinger, one of the organizers.

Last year, the same group was able to secure a permit and featured a ritual burn as the centerpiece of the event—then billed as healing from the drug war.

But while they have have gotten approvals for other parts of Catharsis for this year—two DJs and large-scale protest art, among them—the size of the fire itself is at issue.

Without much precedent in the way of blazes on the National Mall, the National Park Service deferred to D.C. regulations last year, which allows fires up to 5 feet by 5 feet by 5 feet. But the D.C. Fire Department issued a waiver for a larger one (with a 10-foot by 10-foot base) and NPS merely required the Catharsis organizers to have a turf protection plan.

It went forth as planned, with a large perimeter surrounding the blaze. As the fire burned the structure’s shell, a jail cell appeared in the midst before it collapsed in on itself safely. According to a spokesman for NPS, no issues were reported, though officials requested it be extinguished early due to concerns about rising winds.

Many of those involved have years of experience at Burning Man, where a 100 foot temple was safely burned earlier this year. They planned for one with a 12-foot by 12-foot base this year.

While they submitted an application months ago, Catharsis organizers say they were only notified 10 days before the event of a new policy restricting fires sizes.

“In the absence of an existing policy and as the result of a number of events in the region that used fire (including last year’s Catharsis and the Landmark Music Festival), the National Capital Region’s chief of fire and emergency management implemented a policy spelling out uniform safety requirements for bonfires and recreational fires at events in all parks in the National Capital Region,” NPS spokesman Mike Litterst told DCist via email. “The policy is based on D.C.’s and Fairfax County’s requirements for similar events.”

Catharsis organizers say it puts their entire event in jeopardy.

“This is a sacred fire. It’s not something that is just for getting warm or it looks cool. It’s actually a ceremony,” Eidinger says, noting that part of the experience is people being able to enter the structure and write missives or add papers to burn. “It should not be limited in size, within reason, and 5 feet isn’t reasonable.”

So they’ve taken NPS and the Department of the Interior to court with the hopes that a judge will issue an injunction against the new policy.

Catharsis organizers believe it should have been issued as a regulation, which requires public input in the rulemaking process, and that it was made to target their event. Litterst says that’s not the case, and it was done to “in order to bring uniformity to the use of recreational fire.”

The Catharsis back-up plan is to light a much smaller bonfire and bring the specially built temple to Burning Man next summer.

“When 96 percent of the people in this area voted for someone other than the president-elect there’s going to be a whole hell of a lot of trauma,” Eidinger says. Around the city, that has been expressed in the form of protests, vigils, prayer services, and hug-ins. “NPS isn’t] used to change or different modes of memorializing. But the future are these interactive ceremonies, that are secular in nature but also sort of spiritual and religious. It is such a beautiful thing that needs to be available to the whole public.”