Fire Breathers Special!

Fire Breathing is an incredible art form. It's impressive, it's dangerous, and it feels like magic.

In fact, before fire breathing came to Western civilization in the late 19th century via traveling sideshows, it had a long history of being used in spiritual ceremonies.

The earliest records date back to 1500 BCE, but it's likely the real origin goes as far back as humans have been able to interact with fire. In ancient Indian traditions, fire was literally considered a bridge between humans and the divine.

Many rituals, like yajna, involved offering food, herbs, or objects into a sacred flame. Indian ascetics and fakirs would handle flames and walk on coals to demonstrate detachment from the physical world.

In Southeast Asia, particularly in Bali, fire became part of trance-based ritual performance. Ceremonies like the Kecak Fire Dance involve performers entering altered states walking through embers or kicking flames, in which the fire is a representation of chaos, purification, and transformation.

You may be asking "Why should I care?".

Beyond its ancient origins, Breathing fire is an art form to be respected by both the breather and the viewer because of its very real inherent risks. Obviously, breathing fire on someone is going to hurt, but did you know that simply breathing the unburnt spray of the breather can be deadly? The vast majority of breathers today use Lamp Oil, and if lamp oil is aerated (like when a breather sprays it into small particles from their mouth), it can be deadly when inhaled.

Now, hopefully, as an audience member, you are far enough away that you needn't worry, but many untrained or unlucky breathers have gotten sick and/or died from their own spray. So many, in fact, there is a medical term to describe it: Fire Breathers Pneumonia.

ADDITIONALLY, even if you are perfect and never breathe in a single tiny drop, the oil used is a carcinogen. I shouldn't need to tell you that putting a toxic liquid in your mouth, which is full of thin mucus membranes, is a bad idea. So even a flawless breather could eventually get cancer due to the activity.

"If it's so dangerous, why do it?"

The answer would surely be different for each breather, but I believe that any experienced breather would agree that they felt called to it, Consequences be Damned!

So please, I beg of you, don't hire your fire breather just because they are hot. Make sure they actually know what they are doing. I have seen too many easily avoidable accidents due to inexperienced performers.

(And to anyone wondering why I didn't mention cornstarch breathing..... Y'all are a whole different thing, and in my admittedly Very prejudiced opinion, barely count as breathers.)