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In Reply to: candlelight ceremony posted by Former SGA on January 06, 2003 at 10:53:13:
On the evening of December 31, 1985 our home in Corrientes, Argentina hosted a DAF fellowship and a nude candlelight ceremony.
It was a 3 bedroom 1bathroom house in a public housing project (Barrio Apipe) crammed with over 40 people for the 3-day meeting. The local Coca-Cola distributor loaned us folding tables and chairs and a large tent for the backyard as well as installing a corrugated tin roof on the back patio. Anyways, on New Years Eve after all the younger children had gone to sleep and the window blinds were closed and the lights turned off, the adults and the older children had a candlelight ceremony where we each held a lit candle and took turns confessing our sins and shortcomings and stated our goals for the New Year. The theme was "magic green shirt" (truth) time and we also had an old green t-shirt that we took turns wearing. At the time I considered it an honor to be allowed to participate considering I was still 10 years old and more than a year away from the magical age of 12 when I would suddenly become a mature "adult."
My older brother and I both confessed to the "sins" of pride (having good self-esteem and confidence) and independence (thinking for ourselves rather than always following like dumb sheep who occasionally need their legs broken to teach them not to stray from the fold and to obey the sheperd who is protecting them from the big bad System wolf). I have never forgotten this warm nostalgic moment of my childhood. It was indeed quite a treat to be completely naked in a room with 25 other naked people including my mom, older brother and evil stepfather as candle wax dripped everywhere and the heady divine aroma of a couple dozen sweaty naked people (most of whom had skipped their weekly shower because of there being only one bathroom) wafted through the air. The smelly stinky magic green t-shirt truly made this event a memorable occasion. A few months later, after I turned 11, the home voted that I have my first sexual experience with a 28-year-old Brazillian woman, who had five kids of her own (each one from different fathers). Her children were sleeping in bunkbeds in the same room and years later my mom told me she was also in the room at the time. Luckily this happened before Augustin was sent to straighten out our home
and "lay down the law" as he slept with our German cook , gave her a precious gift (herpes) and then they both proceeded to have sex with everyone and in the process infected almost all the adults with herpes.
The marathon confession and fasting session after that was almost more entertaining than our New Year's nude candlelight ceremony but that is a story for another time.
So to answer your question there were definitely candlelight ceremonies. I don't think all or even most of them involved total nudity but I'm sure some of them did.
