Issue207 求拍 求狂拍 大家虎年行大运啊

qyr1987UID: 2754639

TOPIC: ISSUE207 - "Rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are."

Generation after generation, people grow up in their own cultural climate and are inculcated with all the realms attached to the culture, rituals and ceremonies included. As a result, both of them are important to define a culture and ultimately to help gain a sense of belonging of the people in the culture, but not indispensable nowadays.
  
Admittedly, rituals and ceremonies help define a culture as well as gain a sense of belonging. Every person is born into a exclusive nation, whose culture profoundly differ from others(at least to some extent), thus inherently being nurtured by this culture; from the moment of his birth, the customs into which he is born to a large measure shape his behaviors which characterizes him-the way he talk, the way he think, and so forth; likewise, other people bred by the same culture may share the similar behavior which differ them from foreign people; therefore the sense of who they are is inextricably linked with their culture; rituals and ceremonies, as parts of the culture, inevitably help define the culture and gain that sense. For example, Christ is the cynosure of some western cultures, and accordingly there emerge the Baptism to worship the Christ, to wash away the original sin, and to acquire the blessing from Christ, while in eastern cultures, no such rituals can be seen. We can readily tell for which culture some people represent from these rituals or ceremonies.

However, rituals and ceremonies are merely parts of the culture, people always have different ways to reflect it. A paradigmatic example is the festivals; in some western cultures, Christmas which is to celebrate the birth of the Christ is the most significant festival, while in most eastern cultures, the spring festival, which is the celebration of the new year day in the lunar calendar, is the most popular, besides the two most celebrated festivals still existing ones like Hanukkah for Jewish people to appreciate dedication and light. Moreover, language is another expression of domestic culture; Englishmen and American speak English; Chinese people speak Chinese; even in the same country, the languages vary; China has fifty six nationalities, while each of them has its own language and is part of its culture. What's more, each culture differentiates itself with its architecture, clothing, eating habits, and so forth. Those all help distinguish or even define the culture as well as its masses, which to some extent means availing to keep or even raise the sense of belonging.

In fact, with the exponential leap in economic and cultural globalization, the influence that rituals and ceremonies exert to indentify a culture has been enormously diminished. Take the wedding ceremony as a example; once in China, the bride should step over the fire basin for exorcising, but the custom is supplanted with brides putting on the veil which only appeared on the western wedding ceremonies in the past. To the extent that rituals and ceremonies have lost some of their origins that only belong to their culture, they fail to identify their attached culture, let alone give a sense of belonging to the masses.

In the final analysis, rituals and ceremonies truly help define a culture and give a sense of who they are to the people that the very culture breeds, but both of them are alternatives for culture to reflect as well as with decreasing influence.

qyr1987UID: 2754639

Generations after generations, people grow up within their own cultural climate thus inculcated with all the elements attached to that culture, including rituals and ceremonies, both of which are important to define a culture and help gain a sense of belonging. However, they are not indispensable nowadays.


Admittedly, rituals and ceremonies help define a culture as well as gain belongingness. Each person(consider a man) is born into a exclusive nation, whose culture significantly differs from others(at least to some extent), thus inherently being nurtured by this culture; from the moment of this his birth, the customs into which he is born to a large measure shape his behavior which characterizes him-the way he talks, the way he thinks, and so forth-by inculcating the traditional morality in him; likewise, other people bred by the same culture may share the similar behaviors which differ them from foreign people; therefore the sense of who they are is inextricably linked with their culture; rituals and ceremonies, as parts of the culture, inevitably help define the culture and gain that sense. For example, Christ is the cynosure of some western cultures, and accordingly there emerge the Baptism to worship the Christ, to wash away the original sin, and to acquire the blessing from Christ, while in eastern cultures, no such rituals can be seen. People can readily tell for which culture they represent from these rituals or ceremonies.

However, rituals and ceremonies are merely parts of the culture, and people always have different ways to reflect it. A paradigmatic example is the festivals: in some western cultures, Christmas which is to celebrate the birth of the Christ is the most significant festival, while in most eastern cultures, the spring festival, which is the celebration of the New Year’ Day on lunar calendar, is the most important, besides the two most celebrated festivals still existing ones like Hanukkah for Jewish people to appreciate dedication and light. Moreover, language is another expression of domestic culture; Englishmen and Americans speak English; Chinese people speak Chinese; even in the same country, the languages vary; China has fifty six nationalities, while each of them has its own language and is part of its culture. What's more, each culture differentiates itself with its architecture, clothing, eating habits, and so forth. Those all help distinguish or even define the culture as well as its masses, which to some extent means availing to keep or even raise the sense of belonging. In other words, with so many alternatives, we may even go without rituals and ceremonies to do that.

In fact, with the accelerating speed of economic and cultural globalization, the influence that rituals and ceremonies exert to indentify a culture has been enormously diminished. Take the wedding ceremony as an example: once in China, the bride should step over the fire basin for exorcising, but the custom is supplanted with brides putting on the veil which only appeared on the western wedding ceremonies in the past. To the extent that rituals and ceremonies have lost some of their origins that only belong to their culture, they fail to identify their attached culture, let alone give a sense of belonging to their people.

In the final analysis, rituals and ceremonies truly help define a culture and give a sense of who they are to the people that the very culture breeds, but their declining influence along with myriads of alternatives makes them dispensable.
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