Re-enacting Ancient Rites

Cambridge Reclaim The Streets April 2093

The origins of this ancient rite are lost in the mists of antiquity. We do know that this rite is a celebration of regeneration of the ancient tribes that once populated what was known as Cambridge. We now know this area of Europe as The Microsoft Imperial City of Gatesville.Com.UK. Reclaim The Streets is a celebration of the victory of the Eco-Worriers over the evil forces of a demon known as Carculture. The word Reclaim implies the recurrent nature of Carculture's attacks on The Streets, what we now call paths, parks, play areas or cycle tracks.

There have been revivals of this ancient rite, most recently in the Rill Moad Shopping Zone of Gatesville.Com.UK. This was seen as a great day-out, a damn fine street party by all who attended.

The day-out began with what is known as a tug-o-love, between the uniformed forces of law and order - physically manifesting as the Defenders of Carculture - and the Eco-Worriers. They line up, a dozen of each at opposite ends of a rope with a hanky tied in the middle of it. The significance of the tug-o-love and the hanky are lost in antiquity. Neither does the archetypal figure of The Rugby Player do anything to clarify the matter.

The celebration begins in earnest when the helmeted and armoured Chakuras - a Spanish word for husky dog - appear as if by magic in a perfect blue line, raising up a cacophony, beating their sticks against their shields. One of the Eco-Worriers throws a bicycle - which is peculiar to the Cambridge Rite - at the Chakuras and the people erupt in jubilation, dressed in their esoteric costumes, dancing Eco-Worriers, Chakuras and Defenders of Carculture all together, to the wild pounding of innumerable drums.