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20th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Travel
Dancing Around the Golden Calf

People dance around a bonfire during the Golden Calf Ceremony in Ein Hod, Israel, April 22, 2022. For the past 30 years, the residents of Ein Hod, an artists' village in northern Israel, have been celebrating this tradition, a fantastic festival and an artistic, topical, and wild recreation of the Mount Sinai events and the story of the golden calf. It's a special day for many, even sacred to some, where everyone dances, sings, drinks, drums, and wears biblical, white clothing. Each year a different artist creates the statue, which is first revealed in the center of the village before being carried to a lookout point overseeing the Mediterranean sea. There, in one great revelry, it's burned - the representation of the society's ills and the sanctity of materialism.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 04.2022
Date Uploaded: 11.2022
Photo Location: Ein Hod, Israel
Camera: NIKON D600
Copyright: © Daniel Rolider