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8.0.10 Reasonable Rituals
Version 1.1 March 2013 (Previous Version) Are “religious” rituals meaningful if you are not
doing them in the sight of god? What rational purpose can “secular” rituals have? Aren’t the “invented” rituals of secular celebrants
often embarrassing or trite? We
can be inspired by the annual sequence of celebrations of religions and secular
societies. · Christians celebrate Christmas and Easter. The "real" meaning of Christmas is a (northern hemisphere) winter solstice fertility festival, that Christians hijacked - and we can hijack it back (with the unfortunate help of corporate commercialisation). Church liturgy has a whole raft of holy days and rituals, but let's focus only on the big ones. · There are also naturally recurring events such as the equinoxes and solstices, and without being too New Ageist these could be used to mark the changes to the seasons and the cycle of life. ·
Muslims celebrate the end of the fasting month
of Ramadan with the feast Eid-ul-Fitr, which is socially very like the
Christian Christmas - the kids come home for the feast, its a holiday and gifts
are given to children. The original
meaning of Eid in · Hindus celebrate Diwali (or Deepavali), the festival of lights, around October to December, and heaps of other holy days. · In our secular world we celebrate New Year's Eve, and have celebrations for (eg) Melbourne Cup Day and various Grand Final(s) or World Cup(s). · Australians celebrate Australia Day, Eight Hour Day, Anzac Day and Queens Birthday: all good excuses for a party. Other countries will have similar national days. 8.0.10 Conclusions on Reasonable Rituals It is reasonable for sane, rational, scientifically oriented people to look for rituals to mark occasions in our personal lives and natural cycles in the world, to join in events organized largely for pleasure, to participate in activities reflecting socially shared values, and undertake daily activities that support our well being. 8.0.10.1 We can use rituals to express joy, feel reverence, reflect on our situation, resolve to continue the struggle, share our feelings, make tentative plans, and hope for the future. Rituals can also be used to achieve practical outcomes. 8.0.10.2 We can celebrate personal occasions that arise ‘automatically’ and those that reflect ‘achievements’: ● births, birthdays, coming of age, knowledge of impending death (to celebrate while we live and say goodbye) and death itself; ● educational achievements (graduation from primary, secondary and tertiary education), career achievements (first real job, promotion, opening a business, leaving a workplace, retirement, etc), housing achievements (housewarming, buying a house, setting up a home): ● “going steady”, first sexual intercourse, marriage, anniversaries, divorce. 8.0.10.3 Natural cyclic worldly occasions that are an excuse for celebration include: ● the annual cycles such as the New Year, summer and winter solstices, autumn and spring equinoxes, and other locally significant seasonal changes. 8.0.10.4 Artificially created events that are an excuse for celebration include: ● cultural events such as Christmas, Eid, Passover and Deepavali, interpreted to mean celebrations with family and friends; ● national events such as those the
celebrate the founding of the country or anniversaries related to significant
events or people in the country’s history (eg Martin Luther King Junior Day in
the ● perhaps annual global events such as May Day, Earth Hour, and so on; ● commercially exploited events such as Valentines Day, Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day (and as the Japanese do it) Boys’ Day and Girls’ Day. ● sporting events, such as the World Cup, the Olympic Games, the Tour de France, various horse races (eg the Melbourne Cup) and football finals. 8.0.10.5 It is reasonable, perhaps essential, to participate in activities that reflect socially shared values: ● Rituals associated with democratic elections at a personal level (registering to vote, watching debates, discussing policies and candidates, casting our vote) and community level (voting counting, declaring the winner, inauguration ceremonies, parliamentary debating procedures, etc); ● Rituals associated with the legal system (respecting the separation of the functions of legislation, enforcement, prosecution, judgment and punishment, complying with rules of evidence, treating the accused as innocent until proven guilty, judicial respect, etc). 8.0.10.6 We also must attend to the daily rituals of our lives, which include: ● keeping ourselves clean (daily washing, brushing teeth, ablutions); ● loving rituals (kissing, hugging, cuddling, shaking and holding hands) with lovers, friends and family; ● conducting ourselves respectfully in the community: - being courteous – good morning, please, thank you, goodbye, - being patient – awaiting our turn, - being tolerant – not getting aggressive, - minimizing our impact on the environment reuse, recycle etc; ● joining in the reasonable rituals of the workplace: - being appropriately respectful to superiors, colleagues and underlings, - following professional work ethics and industry standards; - participating in appropriate work celebrations and reviews; - accounting for our time and effort; ● responsibly undertaking the duties of citizens: - learning about political issues and evaluating social responses; - exercising skepticism in the face of all sorts of claims; - being critical of the media, news reports and politicians; - accepting the ritualistic procedures of the scientific method; - consciously investigating related historical events; ● giving ourselves opportunities to reflect: - appreciating the natural beauty around us; - appreciating the wondrous and beautiful things humans have achieved;
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