play with fire

Many do not know but the couch burning as demonstrated in Isla Vista on the Friday evening of February 18th 2011 is a tradition that has very legitimate beginnings. It is actually based on a ritual known as the Bunafa, a ceremony of the Trualse tribe of the Cook Islands. The tri-annual ritual is used as a way to fend off the evil properties of laziness, war and procrastination and summon the god of rebirth. The South Pacific island community uses the ceremony as a way to avoid laziness in the tribe by burning each household's hand made bamboo and palm-leaf sofa benches (which are highly flammable) as a way to encourage productiveness with the following days ritual of assembling a new bamboo sofa bench.

The Bunafa ritual begins with the participants alternating between drinking and dousing each sofa with a liquor of the tribe (Tevokey). A tribal dance known as the Visnce includes jumping over the fire (as demonstrated by one young man in the video) as a way to prove oneself ready to start making couches of their own.

The couch-burning tradition in IV started after the Bank of America branch of Isla Vista was burned down in February of 1970 as part of the Isla Vista Riots in protest of the Vietnam War.

The February couch burning is a tradition started by Santis Mora, Polynesian and a Trualse tribe decentent in 1974 on the anniversary of the fire and in celebration of America's impending exit from Vietnam. The burning is a tradition in which students commemorate the loses of the Vietnam War while praying for successful midterms(which happen around that time). This tradition, which is coming on its forth decade of existence in Isla Vista is often hushed by authorities when in reality the ritual is simply a religious ceremony of the Trualse peoples as well as a war remembrance tradition for the students at UCSB.