Ceremonies announce the onset of change. They are the bookends, the markers that help human beings to come to terms with our existence, to shape life into tangible chunks which aid in the telling of our stories. Human beings have a profound relationship with stories and our stories are ours to embellish. It’s quite possible for a ceremony to be ornate with being ostentatious. They can be symbolic without being sombre.
When conducting ceremonies, it seems important to remember the vastly differing attitudes we modern humans have for ritual…
On the one hand… to many atheists and certainly to most nihilists… ceremonies are meaningless exercises and a waste of time and money, superimposing values onto a reality which is beyond any comprehension. For these people they can appear as if simply trite exercises in vanity, superstition, pomp, and the useless glorification of icons for no significant purpose.
On the other hand, for the majority of people, ceremonies are the punctuation of life, they are the adornment of an existence which could otherwise appear grey, drab and without meaning.
Ceremonies present an opportunity for us to colour our lives according to our own palette and bring people together for acts of communion, shared moments where the boundaries between us melt in the warmth of human connection.
Alternatives: Namings – Grief Mandalas – Life Stories – Culture Change
