A cloud of white, powdery dust floats over from where a group of men stand crowded beneath a shelter of trees.It’s nearly 2 p.m. on Saturday and the men are busy mixing up several gallons of whitewash, made from water and 20 bags of hydrated lime, in a large container. A power-generated mixer makes sure the lime is distributed evenly. The men then dispense the paper mache-like paste into buckets, and workers brush the homemade whitewash a few feet high along the bottoms of trees within Lumpkin Campground.The process takes around two hours, with a representative or two from each of the 51 tents in the campground chipping in to spread the fresh, white paint.Using brooms with stiff bristles, fathers and grandfathers take their children and grandchildren alongside them and instruct them on how to carry out the tradition.“Don’t go too high now,” Aaron Tallant tells his toddler grandson Carson, who has just stabbed at a tree with a broom as twice as long as he is.
Purity of the Holy Spirit: Campmeeting kicks off with annual whitewashing of trees