Religious Rituals

Purification and Sanctification

Because of the sacredness associated with most ritual performance, many are preceded by rituals of purification. These typically include physical cleansing of participants, ritual items, and ritual sites. Additionally, fasting, abstinence, solitude, and other similar practices may be performed. These are meant to help prepare the participants physically, emotionally, and spiritually to perform the subsequent rituals, as well as to receive the blessings, forgiveness, or powers that other rituals are meant to confer. Purification rituals may also be done on their own as a preparation for most everyday activities, from eating to working to sleeping.

Personal, Public, and Performer

When the individual who performs a ritual is a commoner or lay person, the ritual is generally a personal one. Rituals of ablution, prayer, meditation, offerings at a home altar, and so on are typically undertaken by lay persons as a part of the daily enactment of their religious beliefs. When the performer is a designated officiant, such as a priest or a shaman, then the ritual is a mediated one, undertaken for the benefit of another (usually a lay person). In such cases, the beneficiary of the ritual will likely pay the officiant, with money or goods, for the rituals performed. Most religious traditions have individuals who are specifically trained and officially authorized to perform such rituals. They are generally referred to in English as “priests,” and their primary function is to oversee both mediated and public rituals. The latter are meant to draw the community into joint participation and expression of acceptance of the beliefs and values being expressed by the ritual. They also function to promote a sense of unity, in which individuals are inspired to support and promote the communal system of behavior. Indigenous cultures often have shamans who perform rituals as well. In these cultures, shamans are called upon for special and individualized rituals, such as performing exorcisms, curing illnesses, warding off curses, and mediating with the world or spirits and ancestors.

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