Rituals

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Rituals

• Meaning In Symbolic Actions

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Rituals

• Rituals symbolic actions that help us
  concretely, or physically, express our beliefs,
  values, and deepest concerns.
• As simple as a handshake, a wave, or the sign of
  the cross.
• Can be as complex as a presidential inauguration,
  the Olympic Games, or the installment of a pope.
• Whether serious in tone or lighthearted, rituals
  are a form of celebration which leads us out of
  our mundane concerns into a special way of being
  together with others.

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Practical Actions Vs. Symbolic Actions

• Practical actions performed for specific
  practical purposes.
• Example walking down the street, washing your
  hands
• Symbolic actions performed to symbolize a
  deeper meaning.
• Example marching in a parade, priest washes
  hands during the offertory.

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Combining The Practical Symbolic

• At times we can combine symbolic actions with
  practical actions, thereby bringing greater
  significance and deeper meaning to the practical
  things that we do.
• Example Saying prayers before a meal

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Ritual Routine

• The difference between a ritual and a routine is
  very similar to the difference between a sign and
  a symbol. Routines are one-dimensional in
  meaning, whereas rituals have deeper multi-level
  meanings.
• Example brushing your teeth , washing your
  hands, eating, going to sleep at night, etc.

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Ritual Routine

• Sometimes rituals can come to be experienced as
  lifeless routines when repeated continually
  without any sense of their deeper significance.
• Rituals are often playful or celebratory.
• As playful activities rituals enable us to pause
  from our daily routines. They enable us to pursue
  aspects of our life that might otherwise be
  neglected (spiritual renewal, friendships,
  ffamily relationships, etc.).

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Ritual

• Every culture seems to develop rituals. Like
  symbols, ritual seems to be at the core of what
  it means to be human.

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Characteristics of Rituals

• Rituals involve movements and gestures that
  convey meaning beyond what they express at the
  literal level.
• Symbolic actions repeated regularly.
• Often they take on the tone of celebration -
  helping us to break out of lifes routines.
• Usually connected to important events. Often
  associated with firsts in peoples lives.
• Words sometimes play a secondary role supportive
  and complementary to the actions.

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Characteristics of Rituals

• Link people with their past.
• In rituals people come together to celebrate
  being a community with a common identity.
• Not enough to merely observe a ritual. For it to
  have any kind of meaning, one must enter into it
  wholeheartedly.
• Good ritual is how we remember who we are and how
  we celebrate who we shall become.