Characteristics of Rituals
Contents
- Ritual Needs
- Ritual as Conscious and Voluntary
- Ritual as Repetitions and Stylized Bodily Actions
Ritual Needs
Let's start by taking a look at the ritual at level first of manifest manifestation. i. e. the level of the current social reality. Describe the different needs that a person might have while participating in a ritual.
- i) The ritual space
- ii) The participants
- iiii The ritual objects
- iv) Verbal and/or bodily actions
Every ritual in every religion must have these four elements as a foundation. Let's consider each of them in brief.
The Ritual Space
This is a clearly defined environment that is primarily known as the sacred realm. There are temporary settings that are designated as ritual spaces while a ritual is taking place in them, despite the fact that such spaces are typically permanent and recognized as such by members of the faith.
The Participants
A ritual's participants as a whole are included in this. The priest and their assistants or helpers would perform the main ritual activities in front of a general audience of fellow believers in most ritual settings. During the course of the activity, each participant acts or has a specific role that is called upon to be performed.
Rituals Objects
These generally refer to a variety of items that are utilized during any ritual. These goals also take on a sacred quality as they are objects whose significance is primarily determined by the fact that they exist in the sacred realm.
Verbal and/or bodily actions
Every ritual entails a variety of physical gestures, such as bowing and knelt down. verbal responses, whether they be the simple recitation of prayers or the chanting and singing of hymns. What matters is that these bodily movements and oral incantations adhere rigidly to a predetermined pattern or sequence.
There are still more qualities that should be mentioned about rituals. These speak to the type of activity that takes place during rituals. M. Eliade (The Saved and the Profane, 1959) discussed rituals and identified four of these traits. According to him, rituals are those deliberate, voluntary, repetitive, and stylized physical actions that are focused on cosmic structures and/or sacred entities. This group of bodily actions also includes verbal behavior.
Ritual as Conscious and Voluntary
The typical behavior of people in daily life does not include ritualistic behavior. Contrarily, partaking in ritual behavior necessitates that participants actively choose to submit to very highly patterned rules and roles that conform them to all previous actors of these "typical" roles. The self must consciously give up its personal autonomy and freedom to be anything other than what is required of it by the ritual. Take the Christian practice of "Mass" as an example; during this ritual, participants share a common set of gestures, movements, vocalizations, etc. from moment to moment. Such involvement demonstrates the believers' conscious engagement with the religious experience. Various ritual activities come in a variety of forms, which must be remembered. However, most rituals involve bringing consciousness to a higher or more elevated level.
The voluntaristic aspect of ritual must be understood within the larger framework of ritual as a component of a religious system of doctrine and practice. The adherent of a faith voluntarily submits his or her individual will to the collective will of the group performing the ritual. The only way a believer can access the sacred and establish communion with the "divine" is through this voluntaristic submission of self.
Ritual as Repetitions and Stylised Bodily Actions
Rituals are the physical manifestation of worship, articulated by the human body, at the manifest level. As a result of religious experience, the human body assumes a crucial role. e. It not only develops patterns of movement and gestures within a specific religious practice, but it also internalizes the experience contained within the given religious practices. The significance of the human body is demonstrated by the fact that, beginning in infancy, an infant develops an understanding of the world through sensory and motor experiences. This knowledge supports and underpins "the adult experience of space, time, number, and personal identity.". Consequently, the stylized, patterned, and repetitive nature of actions (for example, g. , the recitation of mantras in a temple, or the Muslim practice of offering the "Namaaz") bring out not only the body's patterned movements but also act as channels of communication by which the body connects to the sacred. Furthermore, although these repetitive patterns may seem boring and meaningless to an outsider, they actually serve as both the form and the substance of i for the participants. e. the hidden meanings the religious experience must have for them.
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