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Burning Man
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=== 1980s === [[File:Burning Man 1987 poster.jpg|thumb|Poster for Burning Man 1987, showing the 1986 effigy]] [[File:Two-burning-man-founders.png|thumb|Two of the founders of Burning Man: John Law (left) and Michael Mikel (right)]] Burning Man began as a bonfire ritual on the summer [[solstice]]. Sculptor Mary Grauberger, a friend of Larry Harvey's girlfriend, Janet Lohr, held solstice bonfire gatherings on [[Baker Beach]] for several years before 1986, some of which Harvey attended. When Grauberger stopped organizing it, Harvey "picked up the torch", with Grauberger's permission, and ran with it.<ref name="Doherty 2006 28" /> He and Jerry James built the first wooden effigy on June 21, 1986, cobbled together using scrap wood, to be torched that evening. On June 22, Harvey, James, and a few friends met on [[Baker Beach]] in San Francisco<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sacredtribesjournal.org/htdocs/images/Encyclopedia/Burning_Man_Festival.pdf |title=StJ's Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements |access-date=September 5, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222170040/http://www.sacredtribesjournal.org/htdocs/images/Encyclopedia/Burning_Man_Festival.pdf |archive-date=February 22, 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/366960 |title=Burning Man Festival in Alternative Interpretive Analysis |last=Morehead |first=John W. |journal=Sacred Tribes Journal |volume=4 |number=1 |year=2009 |pages=19β41 |issn=1941-8167 |access-date=October 25, 2018 |archive-date=January 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127122356/https://www.academia.edu/366960 |url-status=live}}</ref> and burned an {{convert|8|ft|m|adj=mid|-tall}} wooden man and a smaller wooden dog. Harvey later described his inspiration for burning these effigies as a spontaneous act of "radical self-expression".<ref name="Doherty 2006 28">({{cite book |last=Doherty |first=Brian |title=This Is Burning Man |publisher=[[Benbella Books]] |date=July 2006 |page=28 |isbn=978-1-932100-86-0}})</ref> In 1987, the Man grew to {{convert|15|ft|m|sigfig=1}} tall, and by 1988, it had grown to {{convert|30|ft|m|sigfig=1}}.<ref name="burn.life">{{cite web |url=http://www.burn.life/1986--1990-the-early-days.html |title=Burning Man 1986β1990 β The Early Years |access-date=May 24, 2016 |archive-date=June 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617093926/http://www.burn.life/1986--1990-the-early-days.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> By 1988, Harvey formally named the summer solstice ritual "Burning Man" by titling flyers for the happening as such. This was done to ward off references to "[[wicker man]]", the reputed [[Celtic paganism|Celtic pagan]] practice of burning live sacrifices in human-shaped wicker cages. Harvey has said that he had not seen the 1973 [[cult film]]'' [[The Wicker Man (1973 film)|The Wicker Man]]'' until many years after and that it did not inspire the action.<ref name="burn.life" /><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=799JDtofMpEC&q=wicker |title=This Is Burning Man |first=Brian |last=Doherty |date=September 3, 2007 |publisher=Little, Brown |via=Google Books |isbn=978-0-316-02892-9 |access-date=November 9, 2020 |archive-date=October 10, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231010011753/https://books.google.com/books?id=799JDtofMpEC&q=wicker#v=snippet&q=wicker&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref>
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