–Santisima Virgen Maria con Angeles, photograph of retablo by Ecuadoran santero and folk artist Claudio Jiminez, © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
We did a brainstorm on topics for red Ravine in this post and this one and one of our readers (thanks, mimbresman!) proposed we write about rituals. Rituals, like the way he always touches the shell of the airplane as he’s boarding. This spurred a flurry of comments on our rituals when we fly.
What is it about rituals? Why does it comfort us to recite a prayer or wear a particular cross at take-off?
Below is a citation on rituals from reference.com. Take a look. Rituals are everywhere. Rituals can come from our culture or society. Rituals can get passed from one family member to another. I picked up from my older sister the ritual of lifting my feet and scratching the interior ceiling of the car any time we crossed over a railroad track.
What are your rituals? Do a 15-minute writing practice on rituals, and if you have time, shape that practice into a short essay. Or, if you’d prefer, list your favorite ritual, along with the story of how it came to be yours, in the Comments section of this post.
—
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value, which is prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. A ritual may be performed at regular intervals, or on specific occasions, or at the discretion of individuals or communities. It may be performed by a single individual, by a group, or by the entire community; in arbitrary places, or in places especially reserved for it; either in public, in private, or before specific people. A ritual may be restricted to a certain subset of the community, and may enable or underscore the passage between religious or social states.
The purposes of rituals are varied; they include compliance with religious obligations or ideals, satisfaction of spiritual or emotional needs of the practitioners, strengthening of social bonds, demonstration of respect or submission, stating one’s affiliation, obtaining social acceptance or approval for some event — or, sometimes, just for the pleasure of the ritual itself.
Rituals of various kinds are a feature of almost all known human societies, past or present. They include not only the various worship rites and sacraments of organized religions and cults, but also the rites of passage of certain societies, oaths of allegiance, coronations, and presidential inaugurations, marriages and funerals, school “rush” traditions and graduations, club meetings, sports events, halloween parties and veteran parades, Christmas shopping, and more. Many activities that are ostensibly performed for concrete purposes, such as jury trials, execution of criminals, and scientific symposia, are loaded with purely symbolic actions prescribed by regulations or tradition, and thus partly ritualistic in nature. Even common actions like hand-shaking and saying hello are rituals.
Source: American Psychological Association (APA):
Ritual. (n.d.). Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 01, 2007, from Reference.com website: http://www.reference.com/browse/columbia/X-ritualChicago Manual Style (CMS):
Ritual. Reference.com. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press.Modern Language Association (MLA):
“Ritual.” Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press. 01 Jun. 2007.
Rich topic. Love the photograph, too. Thanks for posting. The comments on rituals around flying on the post I’d Rather Be Fishing made me realize what fertile ground this is for writing.
BTW, do you still do this? I’m trying to imagine how.
I picked up from my older sister the ritual of lifting my feet and scratching the interior ceiling of the car any time we crossed over a railroad track.
LikeLike
When I played high school sports, I wore a medal around my neck of the Pope. It had been given to me by my first girlfriend who came from a big Irish Catholic family (where coincidentally 4 out of the 6 kids were gay). Anyway, the medal had actually been blessed by the Pope on a trip her parents made to Rome.
I touched that medal before every game. And I’m not even Catholic. Did we always win? No. Did I feel better for it when we lost? Yeah. I don’t remember which Pope it was. He was a popular guy at the time (early 70’s), very altruistic and big-hearted.
LikeLike
QM: No, I don’t do that ritual any more. In fact, it’s been so long that I realize I confused it. My sister’s ritual was to scratch the interior roof of her VW if we went through a yellow light. Her other ritual was to lift up our feet as we crossed the railroad tracks. Both were supposed to bring good luck, I think.
Interesting about your Pope medal. I think you are a Catholic at heart 😉
LikeLike
“Interesting about your Pope medal. I think you are a Catholic at heart. ”
ybonesy, I often wondered about your comment above myself. I kind of love the rituals. 8)
LikeLike
Great topic, ybonesy. I did a write yesterday about cleaning rituals, from the way my mother used to bathe all of her daughters (all five of us, in chronological order) to her annual spring housecleaning rituals which forced me to look at my own cleaning rituals which led to a big boo-hoo when I realized that the mop doesn’t fall far from the bucket.
LikeLike
Sounds like you went deep with the practice, Sharonimo. Interesting that they’re both cleaning rituals (your mother’s fixation on hygeine and your spring house cleaning) but each so different. Yet you found the link between the two.
BTW, the phrase the mop doesn’t fall far from the bucket is great, so witty. But I have a feeling the piece you did was much more intense than your humor suggests, yes?
LikeLike
Yes, it was ybonesy, in fact, I had to quit writing and walk out of the room after that mop line just to get what seemed like a breath of fresh air. I once again bumped into memories/images I don’t want to face — I use humor a lot to keep the hard stuff at bay. I think my challenge now is to go deeper and trust that the humor will still be there somewhere in the dark.
LikeLike
[…] -from Topic post, Rich in Ritual. […]
LikeLike
Sharonimo, I think the good thing about your humor is that it’s almost a practice for you. I am positive it will find a form in the deeper, darker places. I find one of the hardest parts about writing and practice is that I never know what’s going to come up.
I remember tears just rolling down my cheeks a few times in Taos last year. I had no idea they were even inside me. It prepared me for what I’m doing today with my book. I have a feeling many of us are working with leftover energy from sitting and practicing in Taos last year. The waves are still undulating.
LikeLike
[…] -from Topic post, Rich in Ritual […]
LikeLike
I hope it is not offensive, but the first thing I thought about when reading about the rituals was OCD.
When I exit my car after having the lights on, I always have to shut the engine of and then turn the lights back on and off. It annoys me to have the timed headlight thing.
Regardless, I thought it was interesting to read the entry about rituals, and then also go look up OCD. Check it out, quoted from reference.com.
“Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric disorder most commonly characterized by a subject’s obsessive, distressing, intrusive thoughts and related compulsions (tasks or “rituals”) which attempt to neutralize the obsessions.”
I can go back and tell my parents it is just ritualistic that I do certain things. 🙂
LikeLike
Hmmm, if were a parent of an adult child and I had the choice of my kid having OCD or being ritualistic, which would be less worrisome? Obsessive-compulsive…Ritualistic…Obsessive-compulsive…Ritualistic… I think I might prefer OCD, to tell the truth.
Although, I have to say, I like saying the word “ritual-is-tic.” I like how it gets all grouped up at the itualistic part.
LikeLike
[…] -from Topic post, Rich In Ritual. […]
LikeLike
[…] spiritual health. Recognizing and honoring the seasons is one way to stay grounded. We delved into daily and superstitious rituals in one of the first Writing Topics on red Ravine. Animals have rituals of feeding themselves, […]
LikeLike
[…] I say goodbye to you tonight with gratitude and anticipation. I am thankful for your rituals. It’s the night before the New Year. What will my yearly practices be? It will be around the […]
LikeLike