For the love of #ritual & #tradition

#Ritual. #Tradition. What comes to mind when you hear these words? Supportive? Grounding? Expansive? Regressive? Constricting?

When I was younger, the notion of ritual and tradition would send me into apoplectic rage - “Stuck in the past” or “empty symbolism” characterised my immature reactions. Now, older, I see I was wrong. I mistook practical experience of the day for transcendent possibilities. This week has surfaced again, at least for me, some searching questions. The stimulus is that millions around the globe celebrated #Holi, a festive celebration of colour which represents profoundly important human qualities.

This week, communities all over our world showered each other with dazzling powders of red, blue, green, saffron, and purple. People sprayed each other with coloured water infused with the same vibrancy, and across national boundaries, streets pulsed with colourful life as the challenges of daily existence were put aside to celebrate. It’s because Holi is a ritual of joy, of hope, of love.

Holi is a festival whose rituals celebrate the triumph of #good over #evil. It is a festival that honours #forgiveness. It is a festival that colours us all with richness; from a primeval culture steeped in caste-based divisions, Holi smothers differences in hues which blend us all together into one common #humanity. We are not seen through our distinctives, but through our oneness.

Did Holi impact your life this week, or even register on your cultural radar? Did its vibrancy make its way into your life? It certainly did for the #Australian #primeminister, who happened to be in #India this week for important matters of state and yet still found himself caught up in the exuberance of Holi.

While the vibrancy of Holi danced its way across diverse cultural landscapes, another quiet ritual continued largely unacknowledged. For communities who pursue the Rule of St #Benedict, this time of the year (i.e., the season of #Lent) brings with it a particular ritual that might also serve us well. Within #Benedictine communities, an expectation is set to read a book of significance in its entirety. Extra time is to be set aside for this edification – it’s a noble challenge for us all. What am I currently reading (feel free to share in the comments)? How does it equip me to be the teacher, the leader, the servant of my community?

These reflections all beg a larger question about what is a #ritual, and do they matter? More to the point, should I care?

Anthropologists place great significance on rituals. Rituals help explain important community values; they give primacy to behaviours valued within the community. They tell the story of how members of a community grow, change, and connect with its lived purpose. French sociologist Arnold van Gennep (1922/1960) suggested three phases which might open possibilities for us to explore the significance of our own rituals. Rituals, according to van Gennep, take initiates away from their normal life in the group, or what he named separation. It’s during this time away that they undergo a transition into something, or someone, new. Finally, they return for incorporation back into the group of which they were already a part, although as someone new.

So, what about the rituals in your school? How do they separate – are students, or teachers, elevated, or relegated, because of specific criteria? Are these criteria valued? Valuable? Ethical?

After students, or teachers, undergo this separation by being given acknowledgement or reward of some sort, how do they respond to their colleagues, and how are they perceived, or transformed, within the wider school culture? Importantly, how are they incorporated into the ongoing life of your community? These are not easy questions in wider professional cultures of #performativity, #advancement, #accreditation, and #affirmation. And how do you see yourself within these?

What rituals are enculturated within your school? If you’re willing to entertain the idea, might you consider if, and how, they have relevance to your community at this point of time? What this opens for consideration is the idea that any rituals you have (either staff or student focussed) may, at some point, hold profound significance, but now their significance and relevance might need to be ascertained for your current, and future, community. How do you do this? What stories are told about the source and currency of rituals and traditions?

Holi also comes 40 days after another festival, Vasant Pachami, that might have some relevance for us involved in the vocation of education; it’s another reminder of the universality of the #symbolism of 40, and thus #the40project. Vasant Panchami is a festival that occurs 40 days before Holi and which begins preparations for the celebrations of Holi. It’s a celebration of writing, of learning, of poetry and music. It’s a time when parents encourage their children to love education and knowledge.

How extraordinary that these two remarkable priorities are linked through ritual and tradition – education and creativity give way to forgiveness and reconciliation. What a splendid calculus! Let’s remember that it may not be what our rituals and traditions are, but what currency, meaning, and impact they have within our communities. More pertinently, how do they ennoble the humanity of my community?

Further reading

van Gennep, A. (1922/1960). The Rites of Passage (M. B. Vizedom & G. L. Caffee, Trans.). The University of Chicago Press.