Rites Somber and Silly to Mark Quake Anniversary

This day shall be to you one of remembrance: you shall celebrate it as a festival to God throughout the ages; you shall celebrate it as an institution for all time. --Exodus 12:14

At precisely 4:31 a.m. on Jan. 17, a candlelight procession will reach the site of the now-razed Northridge Meadows apartment building where 16 people died as the earth lurched in seismic fury one year ago. They will pray for the dead and for themselves; they will end the morning singing.

Across Los Angeles, whether animated by flashlights before dawn, or meeting in the light of day, residents will mark the first anniversary of the Northridge earthquake with dozens of commemorative events, from humorous quake-themed parties to solemn religious services, from political glad-handing events to community award ceremonies.

David Della Rocco is hosting a party at the Reseda bar where he works--revelers will dance to battery-operated tape decks beneath parking lot canopies, props symbolizing the lack of power and the emergence of tent cities after the quake. Debbie Newman of Panorama City is throwing a “come as you were” party with “Shake ‘n Bake” chicken as the menu topper.

There’s a reason that we feel compelled to hold these commemorative events. By remembering the quake, theologians and social scientists say, we are participating in traditions as old as humanity. Something in our makeup responds year after year to the anniversaries of significant events. It’s why we make pilgrimages, give gifts, and hold parties.

We remember, we mark passage, and so we heal.

“These events reassure everybody that we’re going to make it,” said Anson Shupe, who specializes in sociology and religion at Indiana-Purdue University in Ft. Wayne, Ind.

“It’s human to construct these commemoratives,” Shupe said. “It seems to be part of every culture that we know about. The great events and the disasters both get made immortal.”

The commemorations are classic examples of rites of passage, said Mari Womack, an anthropologist who teaches at UCLA and Cal State Northridge.

“These first-year anniversaries are rites of re-integration, and what they do is put an end to that feeling of uncertainty and uneasiness that we’ve passed through for the last year,” she said. “What they’re doing with these parties and things like that is saying, ‘OK, that’s all over now. We’re going on with it.’ ”

Some remembrances, like the candlelight march to Northridge Meadows, will be somber.

“A lot of people did lose their lives, a lot of families were disrupted and had to go through changes,” said the Rev. Allyn Axelton, president of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council, which is sponsoring the procession. “We felt this was a good time to reconnect, for people to look at what their lives mean to them.”

*

The Interfaith Council service, with its use of candles to symbolize the light of faith and a pilgrimage to a place where the dead are to be honored, is the type of ritual used by many communities, said Jim Spickard, a sociologist who specializes in religion at the University of Redlands.

“Expect a lot of tears,” Spickard said. “Where people in the moment of shock could not let it out before, now there will be tears for themselves and for others.”

Rituals for revisiting grief one year after a loss are common in many religions. In Jewish tradition, for example, it is customary to return to the site of a loved one’s grave one year after the death.

“The idea is that the official period of mourning is over,” said Rabbi Carole Meyers of Temple Sinai in Glendale. “There may be people who are not ready to end their grieving at the end of a year. The ceremony is sort of a gentle push out.”

Indeed, marking the anniversary of a significant or traumatic event is so fully a part of human nature that psychologists even have a name for an extreme version: anniversary reaction. Those who suffer from this experience depression or other emotional responses at the same time of year that the trauma occurred.

But the commemorations need not be serious in order to be helpful.

“Come celebrate the trauma!” reads the invitation to a party being given by Craig Tennis, a partner in the Studio City bar Residuals. His Tuesday night party will feature bartenders in hard hats and drinks served in plastic cups without ice.

Tennis plans to play tape recordings of the early hours of quake news coverage by radio stations KFWB and KNX and television station KNBC. He’s had a customer who is a sound engineer put together a compact disc simulating the sounds of a 6.7 quake and its aftershocks, complete with screams and breaking glass.

“We decided the only way to go was upbeat after a year,” Tennis said.

Politicians have seized on the anniversary as a way to promote their interest in the community: President Clinton will tour Cal State Northridge. Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan will have breakfast at Art’s Deli on Ventura Boulevard, which was badly damaged during the quake and only recently reopened. A host of government officials are scheduled to participate in a three-day conference on the quake at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City.

*

Awards ceremonies, such as one planned by the Valley Economic Development Center to honor businesses who rebuilt after the quake, provide a way to look forward.

According to Spickard of the University of Redlands, people who suffered personal losses are more likely to choose a serious remembrance over a wild night. But parties, particularly ones with humorous tones, are a way of laughing in the face of death, a concept that also has roots in many cultures, such as the Latino Day of the Dead celebrations.

The idea, said Mariann Hybels-Steer, a clinical psychologist who studied trauma and treated quake victims, is to allow people to safely revisit a difficult experience. If we can again come face-to-face with 4:31 a.m., Jan. 17, and this time come through unscathed, we have in a sense “mastered” the quake, she said.

“I can’t imagine there’s one person in the city who has not thought, ‘It’s going to happen again on the anniversary,’ ” said Hybels-Steer. “It’s very common with trauma victims to (wonder) if it’s going to happen again in the same place at the same time, and wish to master it.”