Rituals

A ritual is a routine that is carried out the same way at various intervals.  They can be daily, or yearly, or observed less often, or more frequently as the case may be, but the method and the execution is always carried out the same way.  Rituals in their origin were essentially ceremonies that would bestow a rite upon the person they were performed.  Rites are by nature something inherently religious or relating to belief as opposed to rights which are related more closely to the way we should expect to be treated in the world or what we can and cannot do.  Rites are essentially rights that are gifted by some authority figure, that can be embodied in the form of an actual person or disembodied in the form of various gods that people worship.

Whilst the term has religious significance, I do find it fascinating how the concept can be applied to Human behaviours that are carried out in a similar way.  Either with repetition that is predictable or more true to the original term, in executions that conform to those prior executions.  A similar concept is that of traditions where certain acts are carried out because of prior instances.  For example tossing the bouquet at a wedding is an example of a tradition.  The marriage ceremony itself can be considered a ritual.  The fine line between the two is that one is relaxed, and the other is rigid and has a set order and structure that is to be observed.

Beyond grand social conventions however the rituals that fascinate me most are those that people carry out with greater frequency.  Yearly or monthly or even daily rituals that people have.  There comes a question of where the line is drawn between routine and ritual.  If you wake around the same time every day, get up, do the same thing, in the same order every day, is that simply a routine, or is it a ritual?  Whilst one can argue that no rite is bestowed as a reward upon those who carry out this routine, that's not strictly true is it?  Take for example getting up, getting dressed, travelling to work, working 9 to 5, and then going home.  You do this day in, day out, the same thing every day, there is a structure, there is an order, and most importantly, there is an authority figure either in yourself if self employed, or in that of your employer.  There is a punishment for breaking the routine without permission, and there are rewards for adhering to it with precision - namely the wage packet that comes at the end of the month.  There comes the final question - is a job, a right or a rite?

You can argue that everyone should have the right to employment but that's not true, not now nor throughout history.  You cannot demand a job, you must be given a job.  Even if you are self employed and create your own job, in order to establish yourself there is a lot of work that must go into the process and a lot of effort must be made in order to win clients or to engage in the business that drives further business for you, none of which you can simply demand, you must follow the ritual necessary to get to that end.

A job, whilst something most people will aspire to have, is not something that you can keep forever and nobody can take it away from you, an employer can fire you, and clients can stop using your services, so the argument that a job or work as a whole is a right is not easy to make given the definition of a right.  Is it a rite however?  There is certainly a reward for carrying out the ritual religiously, and that reward does increase privilege however marginally so.  We therefore end up with the final question with regards to rituals - what must the reward be, must there even be one at all, for us to consider it a ritual?