A ritual is an activity performed by a person or persons with a belief in supernatural effects. This activity symbolizes faith in supernatural strength. The activity becomes symbolic when the spirit and physicality are abstract. The object of belief may be terrestrial or physical. Terrestrial objects are invisible but exist. Physical objects are touchable. The essay seeks to study rituals in religion.
The ritual is either in secret or in open depending on the observer of the ritual. Rituals performed in secret are not necessarily anti-social. Performance of some rituals follows certain rules, which may dictate time, place, and manner in which to do it. A religion is “a system of beliefs usually involving worship of supernatural forces of beings,” (Kessler 109).In religion, rituals are held for various reasons e.g. as a religious obligation, to demonstrate submission or respect, to show affiliation, to obtain social acceptance, to satisfy self-emotional needs, or sometimes for pleasure.
Ritualistic activities in religion may range from simple activities like greetings to a more socially unacceptable one like offering human sacrifice, which may be termed as murder in other societies. For instance, in the Roman Catholic, before the pope addresses a gathering, he starts with sprinkling water to the masses using a whisk. This is a ritual to symbolize that he is at peace with them and has blessed them. The Bible talks of Jeptha who sacrificed his only daughter to the Lord, being a vow he had made to the Lord that on winning the battle, he will sacrifice anything that will meet him first on return from victory. His daughter was the first. In Islam, washing of legs before entering a mosque, bowing down as they pray, and praying facing mecca are rituals held to demonstrate submission to their god Allah and as a religious obligation.
Mormon temples close doors to the public and to some members who are not sufficiently worthy to be Mormons. Consequently, members who have taken an oath of secrecy hold matters that concern the religion in confidence. A member who wishes to participate in any of the temple rituals must first consult with the pastor of their local congregation. One notable ritual is “Baptism for the Dead,” (Eisenstein 3). “In front of the temple is a large font for baptism placed on the backs of twelve life-sized sculpted oxen,” (Eisenstein 3). A group of teenage boys acts on behalf of the dead. Dressed in white, they line up in front of the font and the officiators immerse them in water and say the words “Having authority given me of Jesus Christ, I baptize you for and in behalf of N. N., who is dead, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen,” (Kessler 122). The dead person’s name is just before immersion.
Regarding secret rituals performed in various religions, a question of the legality of the rituals and oaths that pertain to them arises. An apprentice in freemasonry take an oath:
“I do solemnly and sincerely promise and swear….my throat cut across, my tongue torn out, and with my body buried in the sands of the sea at low-water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours, should I ever knowingly or willfully violate this, my solemn Obligation of an Entered Apprentice,” (Kessler 122).
As Charles Einstein notes in his article on religion and ritual, in the early times, rituals held no meaning as they mainly emanated from observation of activities like animal mating. The symbol arose from the meditation of human and divine realms, which are separately conceived. The divine realm is a disharmony of natural activities from nature itself. E.g., lack of rain and failure of agriculture. To harmonize these two disjoint phenomena, the early people believed that holding an activity to please what or whom they thought was responsible for such shortcomings would solve the problem. This in essence was a ritual and in such a way, rituals developed.
The observance of rituals is still rife since people still believe that that which is unexplainable must be divine and that for a favorable outcome, the divine must be appeased.
Works Cited
Kessler, Gary E. Studying Religion: An Introduction through Cases. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Print.
Eisenstein, Charles. “The Ascent of Humanity, The Origin of Separation Religion and Ritual.” Sacred Action 005, 1-7. PDF file.