Pillows for Stones by Deda


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They Sure Know How To Pitch A Party In Pashan Pud! . . . (August 2001, Uttar Pradesh, India) -- Thousands of Indian villagers have celebrated an annual festival by throwing stones at each other. Nearly 250 people were injured during the Pashann Pud stone-throwing event near Nainital in Uttar Pradesh. Doctors report mainly head and eye injuries. Villagers arranged themselves into two groups to throw the stones. The tradition dates back several hundred years to when one member of the community was sacrificed each year to appease the village's goddess. The injured were given first aid on the spot and many were transported to hospital. The victims described their injuries as a "kind of blessing from the goddess", United News Of India reports. In past times, when a chosen young man's parents appealed to the king to spare his life, villagers were ordered to compensate with their blood. There are no rules about the size of stones that can be used during the festival.

Pillows for Stones by Deda
(Tune: Molly Malone (alive, alive-oh))

In Pashud Pud city
The girls aren't so pretty
They all have black eyes and big lumps on their heads.
They get up at daybreak
Throw stones till their arms ache
And then they're hauled off to their hospital beds
To bed, to bed oh,
To bed, to bed oh,
They're hauled off and patched up in hospital beds

They're joined by their mothers
And sisters and brothers
And fathers and cousins and uncles and aunts.
They're all hurling missiles
And hollering "This'll
Show you guys!" and then they give prayerful thanks
Give thanks, give thanks oh
Give thanks, give thank oh
They fall to their knees and give prayerful thanks.

It sounds rather funny
But their moods are quite sunny
They don't seem to mind being banged up and scraped
They say that they're grateful
For wounds by the platefull
In place of the much worse fate they've escaped
Escaped, escaped oh
Escaped, escaped oh
They're all tickled pink at the fate they've escaped.

So the stones keep on flying
But nobody's dying
At the end of the day they all get to go home
So they'll throw stones and wait till
This system turns fatal
And then they'll regroup and trade pillows for stones
Trade pillows for sto-ones,
Trade pillows for sto-ones
Someday the whole world will trade pillows for stones.