The Money Burners

Burning Issue, is a new print magazine about burning money. The first edition highlights the most recent “Ritual Mass Burn,” which took place last year. One hundred people came; about half burned their money—more than £675 in total (roughly $850).

Creator, Jonathan Harris, doesn’t know why people burn money. He makes a point not to ask. “One of the rules I set myself was to never ask or tell anyone to burn their money,” he says. For Harris, it’s less about why he does it and more a question of, “Why not?”

Burning money, for him, seems almost like a religion, one leaning far toward the pagan end of the spectrum. It’s a symbolic way to get back to the roots of civilization, for which he believes “sacrifice is the founding act, [and] burning money becomes the primary form of sacrificial ritual.”

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Burning Issue, is a new print magazine about burning money. The first edition highlights the most recent “Ritual Mass Burn,” which took place last year. One hundred people came; about half burned their money—more than £675 in total (roughly $850).