No worries, that was the rule back in the '70s and '80s. Everyone burnt stuff with their teacher before they got baptized. Not only youths, with rock 'n roll stuff etc. Older folks would burn stuff that supposedly contained magic or spells. My own grandfather burnt an artifact that was bound up using spells (allegedly). Until this day, he insists that that was the day he "got free" from spells. Others burnt things like their wedding crowns. That was back in the '70s, of course, but it seems that the burning habit carried on much later.
An example of countryside superstition and illiteracy being tied with a high-control extremely superstitious cult.