Which rituals are usually performed

For example, going to church on Sunday is a common religious ritual for Christians around the world. It usually requires the wearing of somewhat different clothing and interacting with others in a particular manner in a sacred location.

At the heart of this experience is a sequence of traditional ritual acts that symbolically represent aspects of the life, teachings, and death of Jesus. Maya Temple in Guatemala built on a high pyramid base to make it a sacred location Most religious rituals are performed in special places and under special conditions, such as in a dedicated temple or at a sacred spot.

This is an intentional separation between the secular and the sacred. By being removed from the ordinary world, the sacred acts are enhanced for the believers. The separation makes the rituals more effective.

Only allowing initiated people to participate in religious rituals also can have the same effect. Religious ritual reinforces the basic tenets of religion. For instance, the "partaking of the host" in the Catholic mass is a symbolic participation in the "last supper" of Jesus and, by extension, an affirmation of the acceptance of his teachings.

Rituals are often charged with high emotions. The exalted feelings people experience during rituals provide positive reinforcement for continuing them. When rituals make people "feel good", they reinforce the belief that their religion is the "correct" one. Non-Religious Rituals.

Not all rituals are religious. Brushing your teeth every morning in the same place and in the same way is a non-religious ritual. Like religious rituals, it also can make you "feel good", which reinforces your continuance of the practice. However, it rarely involves a belief in supernatural beings or forces. Political ideologies and movements often have rituals that can be profoundly important for people, especially when they become the focus of nationalism.

Communism and extreme nationalist movements over the last century essentially became secular religions in some countries. They had their rituals, essentially sacred objects, and beliefs that provided meaning and order for millions of people.

Even in democratic nations that are more international in their focus, there are often symbolic political objects and rituals connected with them. An example in the United States is the pledge of allegiance to the American flag in schools and at public meetings. Religion and health: A review and critical analysis. Zygon, 40 , — Masters, K. Prayer and health: Review, meta-analysis, and research agenda. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 30 , — McCullough, M.

Religious involvement and mortality: A meta-analytic review. Health Psychology, 19 , — Powell, L. Religion and spirituality: Linkages to physical health. American Psychologist, 58 , 36— Pruyser, P.

A dynamic psychology of religion. Google Scholar. Rappaport, R. Ritual and religion in the making of humanity. There is such a wide variety of known mourning rituals that they can even be contradictory: crying near the dying is viewed as disruptive by Tibetan Buddhists but as a sign of respect by Catholic Latinos; Hindu rituals encourage the removal of hair during mourning, while growing hair in the form of a beard is the preferred ritual for Jewish males.

People perform mourning rituals in an effort to alleviate their grief — but do they work? Our research suggests they do. In one of our experiments , we asked people to recall and write about the death of a loved one or the end of a close relationship.

Some also wrote about a ritual they performed after experiencing the loss:. I looked for all the pictures we took together during the time we dated. I then destroyed them into small pieces even the ones I really liked! We found that people who wrote about engaging in a ritual reported feeling less grief than did those who only wrote about the loss. We next examined the power of rituals in alleviating disappointment in a more mundane context: losing a lottery.

To make the pain of losing even worse, we even asked them to think and write about all the ways they would use the money.

Some people were asked to engage in the following ritual:. Step 1. Draw how you currently feel on the piece of paper on your desk for two minutes.

Step 2. Please sprinkle a pinch of salt on the paper with your drawing. Step 3. Please tear up the piece of paper. Step 4. Count up to ten in your head five times. Other people simply engaged in a task drawing how they felt for the same amount of time.

Those who performed a ritual after losing in the lottery reported feeling less grief. Our results suggest that engaging in rituals mitigates grief caused by both life-changing losses such as the death of a loved one and more mundane ones losing a lottery.

Rituals appear to be effective, but, given the wide variety of rituals documented by social scientists, do we know which types of rituals work best?