When we were making the penjor, I would ask a lot of questions. Here is a sampling:
Q: "Why does the coconut need to be on there?"
A: "I have no idea, but it must be there."
Q: "Why do the leaves have to all be pointing out like spikes?"
A: "It has to look like the back of a dragon."
Q: "What does the dragon symbolize?"
A: "I don't know, but it must look like that."
Q: "Why are you using plastic to tie decorations on when most other people use leaves?"
A: "Actually, we're not allowed to use plastic, but we do it anyways because it's too hard to tie knots with the leaves..."
After too much questioning and too few answers, I started to realize that this was less of a religious event for these guys and more of a fun family thing. They were all acting a little giddy, kind of like I would around Christmas time. Most of them had a break from school and were planning to take a fun trip out to the villages later in the week.
Although they still followed the ritual and the custom, most of the religious aspect or importance of this event had been lost.
When the penjor was nearly finished, I started to make a hat from some of the scraps that were left over. One of the guys made a hula skirt too, but that didn't make it on to the camera...
