Andrei Filin, a pastafarian, became the fifth person in the world to have the distinction of being photographed with a colander on his head in a driver’s license photo.
Filin, who is a follower of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, lives in Russia, but there are followers of the church, or pastafarians, who contacted him to congratulate him on his decision to wear the colander.
Though followers of the religion consider themselves a part of a true religion, the media sees pastafarianism as more of a light-hearted social movement that has a unique view of religion that opposes teaching creationism and intelligent design in public schools.
The deity of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the “Flying Spaghetti Monster,” was described to the world in an open letter filled with satire from Bobby Henderson. The 2005 letter was response to the decision of the Kansas State Board of Education, which allow public schools to teach intelligent design as an evolution curriculum alternative. In the letter, Henderson offers a satire of creationism by stating that whenever an object is carbon dated, there is a supernatural being that looks similar to spaghetti and meatballs that appears and changes the results with a “noodly appendage.”
Henderson further argued that the beliefs of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster were equally as valid as the theory of intelligent design, and his beliefs should also be taught in the classroom. After publishing the letter, the Flying Spaghetti Monster became a phenomenon and people from all over the world began to follow the religion.
The first instance of wearing a spaghetti strainer on the head came in 2011, when Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster member, Niko Alm, discovered that Austrian law, which is where he lived, allowed people to wear religious headwear in driver’s license photos. Several others have followed suit, including Andrei Filin and a handful of Americans, who also identify as pastafarian.
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