Modern Ritual Questions?

Question

This is for my Modern Folklore class and this is an assignment we have to do, please help!
What rituals do Americans practice?/
Which rituals continue even though the reasons for them have been largely forgotten?/
What ritual games continue to be played by new generations of children?/
What rituals do modern people have for the following: to begin significant events; to celebrate performances; to mark transitions; to honor endings?/
How are ancient rituals adapted for modern usage?/
How are entirely new rituals created?/
What rituals are related to the following: birth; family; education; religion; country; death?/
What benefits do people receive from participating in rituals?

Just to let you all that think I'm being lazy I'm suppose to get other's input! I need to ask a lot of people so I thought this would be a good place to start, but thanks for jumping to the conclusion that I'm a dumbass like the rest.

Answer 1

One interesting "old" ritual that is practiced in modern society is this: we say "god bless you" after someone sneezes. This dates back several centuries and is based on the idea that your "heart" becomes vulnerable to invasion or possession by spirits (like an incubus or a succubus) when you sneeze. "god bless you" was said to protect you by warding off these spirits.

Another interesting ritual that is practiced around the world is this: when we like an entertainer's performance or agree with with what a speaker is saying, we clap our hands together. I suspect that this is ancient. I don't know how it got started. If you think about it, it really is odd.

Answer 2

There is a major difference between Native Americans incorporating Christianity into their beliefs and people outside the Native cultures using specific Native rituals outside the Native cultural context. I don't know if this difference operates for all Native families and tribes, but it does for some. The reason you can't see the difference is because you are not part of the culture, and so you don't view ritual the same way they do.

In some Native cultures, the belief is that a ritual doesn't happen just when someone does it. When a ritual is done the same way, over and over again, it becomes something--by doing the ritual, the ritual gets shaped and formed, like a clay pot.

Doing a ritual does something within our mind and our will, it affects energy, and in many cases it communicates with and invokes the aid of certain spirits. The first time that ritual is done, all of these things are shaped a certain way for the first time. As it's done over and over in the same way, it builds a pattern--in our minds, in our will, in the energy, perhaps in the collective unconscious.

The spirits who work with us recognize the ritual and know what we intend to do. All these things together are sometimes thought of as a container--like the clay pot, or maybe like a clay tube that power flows through--doing the ritual a certain way gives the container a certain shape, and the container shapes the power and directs it in a certain way.

When a ritual is done that way, over and over, for years or centuries, the container becomes very strong, and the ritual can have tremendous power. But when someone does the ritual not in a good way--without understanding, without the internal shaping that goes on in the mind and heart, without connection to the same spirits, without getting parts of it right, or doing it in the wrong season, or in the wrong way--anything that takes it out of its context and pattern--then it weakens the container.

The idea is that the container acts a little bit like you do when you learn how to do something so well that it's automatic--then you start doing it a different way. You won't do it as well. Even when you go back to doing it the first way, you still won't do it as well.

Now, what if the thing you learned to do was to control huge amounts of power? If you suddenly didn't do it as well, there are lots of possible outcomes. You could just be less effective at doing what you meant to do. Another outcome is that you could fail to do what you meant to do, but the energy could ricochet off somewhere and do something you didn't intend for it to do. Or you could get hurt.

Answer 3

Bertie , not only are they not willing to do there own work , it would seen some are quite willing to do it for them.

Then you have my apologies - maybe next put in your question you are suppose to get input from other people, it would help us from jumping to conclusions.

Answer 4

What do you do for each of those things? Explain that for your class. Or do your own research.

Did you read any of the articles abour the Nacirema when you were studying for this class? http://www.beadsland.com/nacirema/

Answer 5

Why is the youth of today so lazy. They expect other s to do their home work for them its ridicules