State News

Still MSD Strong: Ceremonial Temple Burning In Coral Springs Sends Messages Of Mourning Into The Sky

WLRN 91.3 FM | By Caitlin Switalski

Published May 19, 2019 at 10:07 PM EDT

The wooden temple that's been sitting off of Sample Road in Coral Springs for the past three months was set on fire during a ceremonial burning Sunday night.

However, the structure did not burn to the ground. Firefighters extinguished the flames more than 10 minutes into the burning, because there were too many flying embers. The shell was left standing, though the messages inside and the ornate wood carvings were reduced to ash.

"It's served as a gathering place to hopefully leave behindour sadness and our grief," Coral Springs Mayor Scott Brook said.

17 torches started the fire in a ceremony that emphasized healing and offered mourning and hopeful sentiments into the sky. The temporary work of art opened in February, exactly one year after 17 people were killed in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Hundreds of people spent Sunday afternoon leaving messages inside of the temple before the buring began, and hundreds more camped out to watch the ceremony.

Calledthe Temple of Time, the installation is the first of five public works of art that will be created in the Cities of Coral Springs and Parkland, part of a project called "Inspiring Community Healing After Gun Violence: The Power Of Art."

To see photos from the temple, and from the ceremonial burning, click on the main image and scroll from left to right.

Crowds on the west side of the temple were down wind from the fire. Firefighters used hoses to shoot water at the flying embers during the burn, until ultimatley they had to put it out early.

The last visitors enter The Temple Of Time, a public art installation by artist David Best, four hours before its burning on Sunday May 19th.

Visitors have been leaving paper and wooden messeges for the victims lost in the shooting at Stoneman Douglas inside of the Temple since it opened on Feb. 14 2019.

Many people wearing #MSDStrong T-shirts were among the hundreds of visitors on Sunday before the ceremony. In the middle of the temple was a shrine with mementos for the victims.

The artist, David Best, explained the burning to visiotrs as an offering, sending messages of mourning and hope into the sky as ashes. The burning is also to prevent the Temple from decaying and becoming trash.

Not intended to serve as a memorial or a religious temple, the work of art stood 35-feet tall and people could leave whatever messages they wished to offer up.

The temple was always meant to be only a temporary place for people to build together, and mourn in. Many of the visitors saw the burning as cathartic and healing on Sunday evening.

The names of the 17 shooting victims in Parkland, like Luke Hoyer, were colored onto wooden squares and cards all over the temple. People wrote what they would miss most about them, and messages about not forgetting them.

There was also a kids' station inside of the temple for them to color their own artwork to add to the temple.

Firefighters inspected the temple ahead of the burn, and used some accelerant to make sure the structure would catch fire.

The Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department lined up trucks, hoses, and firefighters ahead of the burning of the temple on Sunday evening.

Hundreds of people camped out for several hours behind barricades before the ceremonial burning began.

The crowd closest to the burning temple watches the ceremony.