...Response Paper #6 - Rituals According to Dictionary.com, the word ritual is defined as "an established or prescribed procedure for a religious or other rite". One ritual that I perform every year is going to church early on Easter morning, for the sunrise service at 6am. In the Christian religion, it is believed that Jesus Christ was resurrected that morning and thus it is celebrated every year on the Sunday after Good Friday; the day that Christ was crucified on the cross. Many churches, like my own, hold an all-night vigil the night before with worship and prayer. On Easter, my aunt always comes over early in the morning and she, along with my mother and I, go to church. The service usually lasts about an hour. A ritual the church itself does is hand out a nail to each patron to remind us of the nails that were driven through Jesus' wrists as he was hung on the cross. After church service; my grandmother, uncle, aunt, parents, and myself meet at my house for an early dinner where we say a prayer beforehand to thank God for a good year. Every year it's the same thing, but just because it is monotonous does not mean it is a bad thing. Rituals are made to be that way; they are supposed to be done over and over - whether it be daily or yearly. Many of them have personal meaning. They don't always have to be religious. A lot of people have a yoga ritual every morning. In my opinion, rituals are done and made for self-gain. In a religious ritual, you are pleasing God and therefore...
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...Christina Kirchner English 10 November 18, 2015 Religious Rituals In his sonnet Anthem for Doomed Youth, Wilfred Owen criticizes war. His tone is first bitter, angry and ironic. It is filled with intense sadness and an endless feeling of emptiness. Owen strongly uses imagery and sound to convey his idea of war. Throughout the poem, he uses an extended metaphor to contrast a funeral at war to a traditional funeral at home. Owen opens the poem with images of death on a battlefield. He jolts the image of a slaughterhouse and the men “who die as cattle.” He displays the image of the way men are treated like “cattle,” being slaughtered. The vast number of soldiers dying emphasizes the absence of bells rung: “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” Instead of pleasant church bells, “the monstrous anger of the guns” and “the stuttering rifles” marks the deaths of the soldiers. Owen turns his poem into a mockery of a religious funeral service. He states the absence of a traditional funeral with prayers and bells for the dead soldiers. The prayers and bells are thought to glorify the deaths of the soldiers and that fighting is noble and purposeful. The “hasty orisons” are irreverence. Instead of sounds of a choir’s holy songs, Owen hears the sound of chaos and the explosions of bombs. He is drawn to another sound of mourning when the sounds of the bugles call to mind the remaining towns with half their men killed: No mockeries now for them; no prayers...
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...Rituals can be found in almost every religion present on earth. I mainly agree with the statement that “the most powerful aspect of religious rituals is their ability to bring followers of a religion closer together with one another.” Throughout my essay I will discuss the importance of rituals within the Hindu, Islam, and Jewish religion. In addition to these three religions, I will also discuss a Native American ritual to help highlight how unifying rituals can be. Giant celebrations can be the result of partaking in specific rituals. The Festival of Lights is an annual celebration and ritual practiced in Hindu that brings joy and delight to the followers of Hinduism. The ritual of Diwali symbolizes the victory of light overcoming darkness, also known as good overpowering evil. Diwali emphasizes...
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...Rituals and Myth Ruslan Khalilov REL 161: Indigenous Religions of North America Dr. Lisa Poirier September 24, 2015 Have you ever think about rituals and myths, why people do perform rituals and tell myth? Myth is the story of origin or controversial story of events in what people believe to be true. Ritual is a tradition or ceremony which people perform, because they believe that performing of ritual will help feel a sense of comfort. For example, people believe that knocking on the wood help people to believe that they have escaped bad luck after tempting fate. In this essay we will go more deep to definitions of myth and religion. Myth is a true story that may and may not have actually happened and it alternatives to scientific understandings of origin. Myth accomplish for people who tell them to believe to controversial story of origin. “When the woman fell she was pregnant with twins. When these came they evinced opposite dispositions, the one good, the other evil. Even before they were born the same characters were manifested. They struggled together, and their mother heard them disputing. The one declared his willingness to be born in the usual manner, while the other malignantly refused, and, breaking through his mother’s side, killed her.” This is an example of myth of Wendat (Huron people) in what they believe is a story of creation of land. Woman was falling with children, one was a good son and second was evil...
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...CULTURAL RITUAL IN IVORY COAST, AFRICA: Ancestral and Spirits Worship Ike Ohanson HR-582 Week 4 Growing up in a different country made me aware of a lot of strange traditions and rituals around me. Back then, I imagined the things I saw and heard were normal until I started being open-minded to outside cultures and learning about them. Ivory Coast is a country of about 16,400,000 people in which 12% are Christian, 25% are Muslim and 63% still believe in old tradition. The old tradition is to believe in “ancestral worship”. People grow up believing that the dead become a spirit that remains in contact with us and we are taught to seek for their blessing and protection. Many ways are adopted to remain in contact with the dead spirits: one way is to sacrifice an animal like a chicken, goat or cow to them in order to get their protection. Or by donate part of money or what is important to us. We also believe in “Magic”. It is used to keep the evil spirit and anything that is supposed to hurt us away. Whenever we struggle or need guidance, people seek help from “Medicine men or Juju priests”. I actually remember going to some Juju priests with my mom when I was a kid. She went there every once in a while when something important was going to happen in our family. For example when my dad needed a big promotion at work, when my brother or sisters were getting to take a big exam at school or when we were planning a big family trip. She did so in order to get blessing from the spirits...
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...When the term “ritual” is heard, images of mystical activities come to mind. However, rituals vary from something as straightforward and universal, such as brushing your teeth daily to something as sacred and intimate as a baptism in a church. It is defined as a ceremony consisting of a serious of actions performed according to a prescribed order. Generally, religious rituals root from myths, religion and ancient practices between the divine and humans. Each religion consists of their own unique rituals and practices that reenact historical events. For instance, every religion or culture has varying rituals following the death of a person, including burials and mourning. “In Judaism, life is valued above almost all else. Almost any Jewish law can be broken to save a human life.” (Rich, 2011) The Torah or Pentateuch, is the central reference of the religion. The Talmud is the most significant collection of the Jewish oral tradition interpreting the...
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...Body Ritual among the Nacirema It is a fact that whenever you visit a different culture and try to observe it from an individual's perspective, your first impression of a society is going to be based on what you have heard about it or what you think about it. Each one of us learns certain prejudices, assumptions and stereotypes that alter our perception of others. It is not realistic for somebody who has no interaction with a society to fully understand how and why things are working in that society unless this observer keeps his/her personal perspective away and practice the self-awareness. If I am visiting a so called Nacirema society, my perspective of viewing at their culture would be totally different than how I would see this culture as soon as I would realize that it is actually world famous American culture. There are a few rituals that I would like to observe from that individual’s view who have never been to Nacirema society before this. The “use of expensive magical charms and potions” and “spending quality time in shrine” would make me think of this society as a magic ridden people who are shallow and superficial with their appearance. They would make their body go through extreme pain by following some rituals, such as, going to” holy-mouth man to get the painful procedure done”, “putting hog hair in the mouth” and ”women boiling their heads in ovens.”(Miner) Being an outsider in this culture, I might quickly attribute these strange rites as supernatural...
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...Tohono O'odham Religion and Rituals Himdag is a Tohono O'odham word that translates to "way of life". The eight elements of religion are found throughout the Tohono O'odham past and present cultural beliefs. The Tohono O'odham believe that they were created by a God named I'itoi. I'itoi once created a people whom were known as the Hohokam or the ancient ones. The Hohokam turned on I'itoi and attempted to kill him four times. After the fourth attempt on I'itoi's life he found refuge in the underworld. From the underworld he brought forth the wuskam, roughly translated as the ones who came out. The wuskam were the Tohono O'odham brought to this world to eradicate the Hohokam and inhabit their land. The Tohono O'odham like many Native American tribes were converted to some sort of Christianity. The denomination adopted by the Tohono O'odham was Catholicism. The catholic faith was brought to the O'odham first by the Jesuit missionaries and further enhanced by the Franciscan missionaries. The catholic religion has since been integrated with the Tohono O'odham himdag. The Tohono O'odham have found a comfortable middle between religion and spirituality. There are many aspects in O'odham himdag that coincide with the catholic religion. Author Donald Bahr speaks about the similarity of the creation stories of the O'odham and the Christian biblical stories. He dissects the myth of a flood in both creation stories, as well as a parting of a body of water such as that of the story of...
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...Rachel Wong Professor Sik Fa Ren BSTC 2004 December 11, 2014 Life through Confessional Ritual Confessional Ritual dates back to an early ritual called “Patimokkha conducted by monastic Buddhists” (lecture 9, pg. 3). The ritual consists of a list of possible zui which are recited twice a month by monks at Uposatha service where all of the monastic community members assembled (lecture 9, pg. 3). Confessional ritual is comprised of four main elements: “chanting the names of different Buddhas and doing prostration”, “kneeling to recite in taking refuge in the Three Jewels on behalf of all sentient beings”, “continued kneeling and recitation of the text in the confession of zui”, and finally, “transfer merit to sentient beings to help them...
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...Body Ritual Among the Nacirema In 1956, Horace Miner published "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" and with it arose many questions. Some of those questions included, "Who are the Nacirema?", "Why have we never heard of them before?", and "Why do the Nacirema live the way they do?" From these inquiries, readers could then deduce their own thoughts about the passage and the Nacirema as a whole. The aforementioned questions served as a foundation of internal (sometimes external) discussion on the main focus of the passage; How does this article make me feel about the Nacirema? For some readers, myself included, it made me feel as though the Nacirema's antics were a bit bizarre/extreme. The idea that the citizens of the Nacirema keep shrines that...
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...Death Rituals and Expectations The Navajo people have a belief that the spirit of their dead would come back to the living if they were not properly buried. The death rituals and expectations for the Navajo Native Americans is a culture that is very sensitive about their dead. The Native Americans needed their dead to be buried rather quickly to make sure that their dead would not come back. The Navajo Native Americans back in the day would clean the dead body and then cover it with a coverlet. They would then put the dead on a horse and head north as far as they could go. The family would find a burial place for their dead and kill the horse so that the dead would have a new horse in the next life. Burial customs require that everything is in order and that all the rituals are followed. One of the rituals is that is a person dies in their home that their home will have to be burned with the body. The surviving family would have to be there at the burning so that they will also be purified along with the deceased (Navajo Death Rituals, 2016)....
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...Summary In the article, Body Ritual among the Nacirema, written by Horace Miner, talks a lot about a North American group called the Nacirema which was first brought up by Professor Linton twenty years ago. He talks about the Nacirema having a daily ritual activity that focuses on the human body. To the Nacirema, they believe that, “the human body is ugly”, and they use what they call a shrine to help avert these characteristics. In these shrines are kept many charms and magical potions that are used daily for when the ritual activity takes place. There are practitioners called the ‘medicine men’ who write down ingredients for the magical potions and then given to the herbalists who then provide the potion for the Nacirema to use and store in their shrine for safe...
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...Nacirema Rituals and its influences on society In the article Body Ritual among the Nacirema, by Horace Miner, the author vividly describes the elements and rituals incorporated into the Nacirema society. The rituals practiced by the Nacirema have an unique underlying fundamental belief as does all rituals in other cultures. The Nacirema believed the human body to be flawed, ugly, and has a “natural tendency to disease.” Therefore, daily rituals including the rite of ablution were conducted in order to purify the body using holy water (washing of hands). The holy water was kept in the community “Water Temple” for the public to use. In addition, every household has a “shrine” which includes a chest as the focal point (bathroom cabinet)....
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...In Horace Miner's Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, he characterized them as a culture based people who very much believe in rituals with reference to the vanity of the human physical structure. Doing these practices, in their beliefs, can cure their bodies' problems, debilities, diseases, and other ugly characteristics. Each Nacirema family shares a "shrine" as part of their practice to keep their bodies in good condition. A built-in chest is also located inside it where potions or charms are placed for safekeeping and to reuse when needed. Rites of ablution are done everyday that requires bowing before the charm box and the use of holy water. It also includes a private mouth rite, described as "revolting", that involves putting hog hairs...
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...In Horace Miner's Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, he characterized them as a culture based people who very much believe in strange rituals with reference to the vanity of the human physical structure. Doing these practices, in their beliefs, can cure their bodies' problems, debilities, diseases, and other ugly characteristics. Each Nacirema family shares a "shrine" as part of their practice to keep their bodies in good condition. A built-in chest or box is also located inside it where charms are placed for safekeeping and to reuse when needed. Rites of ablution are done everyday that requires bowing before the charm box and using the holy water. It also includes a private mouth rite, described as "revolting", that involves putting hog hairs into their mouths....
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