Friday, January 22, 2010

The Big Game: And other rituals in Society that never change (Ritual Assignment)

Rituals are necessary for us to know anything about society. (Ken Kesey) This is a very good and true statement. In today's culture and in cultures of the past, rituals were preformed everyday as a means to maintain traditions or to show a different plateau of your life. When understanding the ritual, I believe it is a set of actions or a tradition often done that has a symbolic value that if not done, would result in the feeling of incompleteness or missing value. One ritual in society everyone sees that's practiced often is getting ready for the big game. Whether it be a game between rival teams, or a big bowl game, everyone has a similar ritual. We go to the store, get the beer and wings, set up an area in our house and shut out all outside distractions as we cheer for our team and yell obscenities at the other. Getting ready for a big game is something we have been doing for a long time and is probably never going to go away anytime soon. A couple more prevalent rituals of today are holiday meetings and potlucks. Holiday meetings usually involve people bringing food and games to family settings to spend time together and catch-up on past times or long patches of no communication. Potlucks are similar but you tend to see them more on a business level or with friends instead of families.

When it comes to my family rituals, it is unfortunate that they seem to be dwindling over the years. A couple that we used to do was going to grandmas on Christmas Eve and family reunions. Going to grandmas on Christmas Eve was a way for the intermediate family and extended family to get together and be with one another. Everyone would bring a dish and we would have a secret Santa party at the end. Now it seems everyone's personal lives are more important to keep up with other family members. (I have not seen or heard from my cousin since she was 11; she's 16 now) The family reunion is a big traditional ritual seen in many different societies as a way to bring families together once a year. We as a family use to be very big on family reunions but again, people's personal lives got the better of them. Now we rarely do them.

When doing research I came across an article about the importance of rituals in family life. The author, Joyce Shriner, talks about the six stages of family life and the importance in the rituals of those stages. For example, in stage 3, the families with young children stage, she discusses how young children thrive on rituals and the importance of each ritual to their lives (Shriner). Story time, bath time and playtime are common rituals that reinforce the family bond in the early years of children.

Although we dismiss many rituals as useless tradition, we should maintain the ones that are symbolic to us. By doing so, we'll be able to pass them down these rituals to our children so that they may keep the tradition and rituals going.

Shriner, J. (2007). The Importance of rituals in family life. Ohio State University: Family and Consumer Sciences, Retrieved from http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/pdf/Rituals_Family.pdf

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