Virgin secret to good festival weather Thu Jul 26 Organizers think they've found the secret to good weather for this weekend's Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning — a virgin. According to an imported superstition, good weather can be assured through a ceremony involving a virgin, some knives and fresh, whole onions and peppers. And, no, Victoria Brumfield won't be sacrificed. Festival organizer Howard Freeman said a colleague heard about it in Singapore several years ago. For the past two years, it has worked in Readington. Partly because of the superstition, Freeman no longer buys weather insurance for the event, which is expected to draw 175,000 people. Brumfield, 28, has worked with Freeman in the past and is a devout Mormon, proud of her adherence to the church's rules, including not drinking, smoking, gambling or cursing — and no sex before marriage. She became the festival's official virgin last year after her younger sister, who had that role in 2005, moved to California. It's a mixture of "fun and embarrassment," she told the Star-Ledger of Newark. Here's how she does it: She drives a golf cart to the four corners of the festival site, picks up some grass, mumbles some random words, then penetrates the produce with a knife before jamming it and the knives into the ground. The ritual was scheduled for Thursday afternoon. The pressure is on this weekend. The National Weather Service says there's a chance of rain each of the three days of the festival, which was scheduled to start Friday.(Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )