Reaching the Roots of Ritual
Harper Cline (she/her)
Rituals guide each of us in our day-to-day lives. The very rising of the moon is a tradition unto itself. We accustom ourselves to its steady cycle and hold ourselves against it. It may seem a small thing to drink a sip of water when waking, but the cycles we set our days to point our feet onto the path we choose to tread.
Ritual holds a different meaning to each of us. Some rail against the confinements; others hold it at arm’s length, snatching it close the moment it offers comfort. Still others latch on with tooth and nail, begging for another moment until the world they must acclimate to forces its way down their jaw. Our ancestors shed their habits onto each of us as the generations wore on. The dilution of these customs is the result of our modern culture, in a country where each region represents a different upbringing and an entirely separate community. Weaving together the old and the new on a single loom, is, truly, the fabric of modern Western society.
Though we turn our faces to the ceremonies our ancestors used to pick through the setting sun, these small traditions are what allowed culture to flow alongside the boats which sailed each to a new home. Tea in the mornings bought from the little old lady down the street, words in one’s language held close until just the right moment, worlds rising and falling with the sway of fabric against skin. Tradition and individual rituals bring families and communities closer together. Holding close the movements of life left behind keeps and continues to keep immigrants and their descendants close to a culture that is wretched away at every moment.
Traditionalism proves to be a sizeable force against intertwining culture and modernism. The invasion of inflexible tradition into each ritual proves only to the outside eye how backward culture is compared to their own. Forcing unbending beliefs onto unassuming peoples only pushes the narrative of conservative-minded elders and immigrants who cling stubbornly to the old ways of living. The walls come up against the relentless assault of modernism- do we punish those who have already had so much taken, those who must close their minds to any sneaking tendril to retain their identity?
Roots from our past clash openly with the budding traditions of today. History demands a deep connection with our communities and a string ‘round the finger attaching each part of ourselves. Today, we hold productivity over community and belonging. Does the greed and gluttony that dominate the current culture hold so much power over ourselves? Traditionalism and modernism both seek to make outcasts of any who do not fit the mold they create, simultaneously creating an aura of extreme selection and an aura of intense grasp.
Entwining the culture of our past with our present reality washes away the onslaught of assimilation our ancestors faced before us. Our future is bright when we flow the old in with the new; novelty and antiquity sweeping together in an ocean of acceptance. Like streams connecting with the land, tendrils of tradition and ritual establish themselves in the earth of contemporary time, always moving, always twisting- but always ever-growing.
