fitzcoraldo
|
Ritual
Jan 09, 2006, 09:31
|
The kids are given a fortnight off school and adults take time from their work, the shops stay open longer on an evening in a bid to win your cash. People run around frantically trying to find a gift for aunty Joan. Conspicuous consumerism runs rampant. Hundreds of cards are sent to the corners of the known world to people we never see or speak to. Houses, streets and whole towns are decorated with brightly coloured baubles, trees are brought into houses, decorated and then gifts are wrapped in gaudy paper and placed beneath them. Special songs are sung. Towards the big day, people spend hours preparing seasonal food, parties are held, drunkeness is rampant as the public holiday approaches...even attendance at the churches increases. This all culminates in a large feast, gifts are exchanged and the feast is consumed.
All of this and more happens every year at Christmas.
Question is, does this make us a ritually obsessed society? It's definitely ritualistic behaviour, I would argue that British society is pretty much secular but there are times of the year when we become extremely ritualistic.
There has been a number of discussions recently where the word 'ritual' has been both attacked and defended but I think if the debate is to move on then we need to define our terms.
To me life in Western Europe is full of ritual activity and pretty deviod of spirituality.
Can this be applied to the past? probably not, I think ethnological studies of none western (capitalist) societies are possibly our best chance at trying to understand Britain 5000 years ago.
But before we attack ritual we should define it.
|
FourWinds
|
Re: Ritual
Jan 09, 2006, 09:35
|
St Valentine's Day
Pancake Day
Easter Eggs
Birthdays
Father's Day
Mother's Day
and a few other invented by card companies!
|
Wild Wooder
|
Re: Ritual
Jan 09, 2006, 09:47
|
|
I can't help feeling most of these are 'festivals' or celebrations.' To my mind ritual is defined as being an activity linked to spritual matters.
|
nigelswift
|
Re: Ritual
Jan 09, 2006, 09:52
|
To my mind ritual is defined as being an activity linked to spritual matters.
Mostly it's taken as that, but it's actually wider according to the dictionaries. Which is where the problem arises.
|
Jane
|
Re: Ritual
Jan 09, 2006, 09:54
|
'To me life in Western Europe is full of ritual activity and pretty deviod of spirituality.'
Couldn't agree more, fitz!
As much as is possible in a society that seems to adore the capitalist excesses of Christmas, I avoid it. But I see the horrors that people face in thinking they have to conform to it - spoling their ungrateful children, getting into hideous and unnecessary debt, stressing about silly things like have they bought enough food, what will aunty smellbag think, etc, etc. This IS undoubtedly a ritualised behaviour that people wish to conform to because it is what society expects of them. I refuse to do this and people ask me 'why'.
I don't think ritual (or habit) has anything (necessarily) to do with religion. I like my getting-up-in-the-morning rituals, but that doesn't make me religious or even vaguely spiritual.
We all need ritual or habit; people thrive within it and need it to punctuate our lives. Just like we need the changing seasons, strawberries in spring and apples in autumn. Without it we don't know what to expect next, we feel unsettled.
Why would not have our ancient ancestors felt any different? They needed the regularity of the phases of the moon to mark time (and the patterns of moods of their women!), spring lambing to ensure freedom from hunger, new growth of willows and rushes for building and weaving...
Organised religions grew out of these patterns, which we like so much. Its easier for us to adopt the religion if it already follows stuff we like and feel comfy with.
J
x
PS This should be interesting at 8pm tonight: Channel 4 'The Root of All Evil?' Atheist bloke turns as fundamentalist in his vigour to promote atheism as the very religions he is 'dissing'.
|
fitzcoraldo
|
Re: Ritual
Jan 09, 2006, 09:59
|
Take your pick
"A set of fixed actions and sometimes words performed regularly, especially as part of a ceremony"
"Of or relating to rites or a ritual : Ceremonial"
"according to religious law or social custom"
" A religious or solemn ceremony involving a series of actions performed according to a set order.
" A set order of performing such a ceremony"
" A series of actions habitually and invariably followed by someone".
"A ritual is a formalised, predetermined set of symbolic actions generally performed in a particular environment at a regular, recurring interval. The set of actions that comprise a ritual often include, but are not limited to, such things as recitation, singing, group processions, repetitive dance, manipulation of sacred objects, etc. The general purpose of rituals is to express some fundamental truth or meaning, evoke spiritual, numinous emotional responses from participants, and/or engage a group of people in unified action to strengthen their communal bonds".
|
Wild Wooder
|
Re: Ritual
Jan 09, 2006, 09:59
|
Sorry to be a stuffy old fart, but I like Christmas even though I'm not Xtian. I like bringing some evergreen into the house, I love a well decorated tree preferably floor to ceiling and I love christmas dinner (cooked by me to give my dear wife a rest).
(and I like being given pressies as well as giving them)
|
FourWinds
|
Re: Ritual
Jan 09, 2006, 10:02
|
Surely ritual is <b>something done consistently for no apparent real reason</b> year in year out or at some other regular interval. I would count giving Easter eggs as a ritual, because there's no personal gain. 'Trick or Treat'-ing I wouldn't becasue, although it's done yearly and in the same manner each time, it's for personal gain*.
Bonfire night (Nov 5th in UK) is a ritual for many.
*Although, as discussed before the practice of going from house to house on Halloween does date back hundreds of years.
|
PeterH
|
Re: Ritual
Jan 09, 2006, 10:04
|
|
So do I and I'm not a Christian either but I can spell it properly.
|
FourWinds
|
Re: Ritual
Jan 09, 2006, 10:15
|
|
That old chestnut again :-) Mind you, I did think it odd that the sentence included 'Xtian' & 'Christmas' rather than Xmas ... come on Wild Wooder ... make your mind up! :-)
|
