Defining Rituals

What exactly is a ritual? Would someone brushing his or her teeth, getting dressed, and eating breakfast everyday be considered as a ritual? In fact, yes it would be considered a ritual, since it is a sequence of recurring events. Ritual can mean many different things, for Psychologist they use this term when they refer to repetitive compulsive activity. However when anthropologists use the word ritual they are using it in a religious or spiritual form. There is an inventory for the different types of rituals, every ritual serves purpose, and it can benefit a person or a group, but can the supernatural be practiced without ritual?

Ritual and myth are two elements that are involved in religious practices. Rituals are often based on myths, however just like the chicken or the egg, no one really knows which came first. Myths are often linked to rituals to have some understanding over why a ritual has to be practiced. For example in the Christianity, when people go to church they have to accept the Eucharist, also called Holy Communion, which is bread or wafers and wine or grape juice, those objects represent the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. People accept that that signifies the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ because in the bible it talks about the Last Supper and Jesus saying to his Apostles that the wine they were drinking was his blood that he was going to shed on the cross, and he broke the bread and gave it to his Apostles saying that the bread was his body. Like this one and many others, there is a reason as to why a ritual is done. The passage in the bible of the Last Supper is the myth to as why people take the Eucharist, every Sunday, which is a ritual since it is done more frequently, that separates a ritual from tradition.

However, according to the book tradition can be considered a Prescriptive ritual, which may be written down on a text "that may be required by a deity or a religious authority or simply be based on tradition" (Pg. 78). An example of this would be Sabbath day, in Exodus 20:8, it states, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep holy." Besides tradition, other rituals are performed because of a particular need of an individual or community, these rituals are known as situational or crisis rituals.

The video that was showed in class on October 2nd called Voodoo Secrets, showed two situations: One is the village of Vedgi doing a voodoo ritual to Zapata, the earth spirit. The village people sacrifice: water, alcohol, oil, and most importantly the blood of a young bull. They sacrificed the young bull in order for Zapata provide protection, food, and bless the village. The second situation they showed was about a man named Aakidowe Aossou, who went to Don Cole, the spirit of the forest in the village of Savalou. Aossou offered Don Cole a wooden stake and red palm oil to help one of his sons get better. Aossou had sought out help in traditional and modern medicine, but none of it helped