A very thoughtful Friday Five this May Day, touching on ritual as a part of our faith experience:
1. Are ritual markings of birth, marriage and death important to you?
They are, which is why I'm sad that they're so diminished/devalued these days in the popular culture. And I think excessive, over-the-top extravagance and personal indulgence of bad taste (either in an attempt to be hip and ironic or because one doesn't know any better) is a kind of devaluement. I'm sorry, but people who take marriage seriously as a celebration of a sacred bond of love and respect don't get married by Jumpsuit Elvis in a drive-through chapel in Vegas. Yes, I'm a mean stick-in-the-mud with no sense of humor...on this topic. As stepmother to 30-somethings, I sometimes mourn the aridity of that generation's ritual life -- of their sense of the Sacred touching the touchstones of the seasons and of our human lives.
2. Share a favourite liturgy/ practice.
I get a lot out of praying the Daily Office, even in a thinky, non-full-body way sitting at my laptop. When I take my turn having an office day at church, I think that I am going to take my show on the road and use the sanctuary for this purpose. If anyone happens to be there and wants to join me -- all the better.
3. If you could invent ( or have invented) a ritual what is it for?
I'm not sure that there isn't already a ritual for any event or condition I can think of. But right now, sitting here, I'm thinking that we need more rituals related to people's employment, since so much of our time and attention is invested in our work. I think retirement is a tough transition for people, even those who've longed for it for years; it might be an interesting exercise to create a spiritual ritual launching a new retiree into a new life of possibility.
4. What do you think of making connections with neo-pagan / ancient festivals? Have you done this and how?
As some long-time readers know, once upon a time I was what I'd call an agnostipagan. I have a fondness for celebrations that, like May Day, have their roots in the pre-Christian festivals of Europe, just as I have my ethnic roots in that place. So I have very little patience with Christians who feel compelled to eradicate everything that may even have a hint of pre-Christian spirituality from Christian practice or the Christian calendar; because that isn't authentically who I am, or who they are either. On the other hand, I think it's possible to overly romanticize our pagan past -- my German ancestors may have had some quaint, evocative ritual celebrations of various kinds, but they also did things like strangle and drown sacrificial victims in sacred lakes as gifts to their deities to help keep the crops growing. Overall, though, I'm more alarmed by the pagan values implicit in the recent Pew study finding that self-identifying devout American Christians seem to be more tolerant of government-sponsored torture than the population at large than I am about Christians wanting to celebrate springtime and harvest and the circle of the year.
To me a real weakness in the Church calendar is its disassociation from the cycle of the seasons; I'd like to see more ritual affirmation of the created world as a good gift of God in our worship year, even if it makes the neo-Gnostics and neo-Puritans nervous.
5. Celebrating is important, what and where would your ideal celebration be?
I like celebrations outside, and I like them to involve food, friends and fellowship. Pick a reason to celebrate!
6 comments:
Great play. I agree with you about employment. I also think we need to recapture vocation. I love going through the seasons, and that is greatly lacking in Christian liturgy, which is why I have a Celtic streak. :)
I also think the employment rituals are a great contribution and one I had not thought of. And how cool that you will be doing Office there on behalf of your community and welcoming anyone called to join in.
All the pagans I know are actually social justice minded and progressive, and very anti-war and anti-torture so I winced a bit on their behalf at the last bit....Maybe there is a better way to describe Christians who endorse such anti-Christian stuff?
I love your comment about rituals around vocation/employment. However, one of the things I love about the church year is its sense of rhythm and seasons. Maybe you have to look for it, but at different times of the year we focus on different themes, and I think the crafters of the lectionary paid (only) a little attention to pairing up readings with seasons.
I like doing something to honor people's everyday jobs...whether they be in the home, workplace, or volunteering.
The church has hints and vestiges of some of the old seasonal celebrations, but I suspect they don't get much play outside of rural agricultural communities. The four major turning points of the Celtic year came halfway between solstice and equinox. The most obvious one is Halloween: All Saints' Day. Three months later, we have Imbolc (an old feast that honoured women, midwifery, and lactating animals) which survives only as St. Brigit's Day and Groundhog's Day. Three months after that, we have May Day, followed by "Lammas" or Lughnasa, an early-August harvest celebration of sunshine, grain, brewing, and manly arts.
Hi, I came across you via Sally Coleman's blog. I am former New Age myself, and have done some of the tarot stuff she done, so your story grabed my interest. I blog from http://mattstone.blogs.com.
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