Issue207 飞跃dreams小组第六次作业

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TOPIC: ISSUE207 - "Rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are."
WORDS: 528          TIME: 80min


I strongly agree with the speaker's assertion. Rituals and ceremonies, inherited from ancient custom, reflect the origin and following development of a culture. With active participation in such rituals and ceremonies, people in contemporary society will have easy access to the long history of their culture and will help grasp a comprehensive concept of themselves.

Rituals and ceremonies derives briefly from ancient religions generated in the process of discover nature as well as human itself. Since unsolved philosophic questions about how we human were created and how we should make harmonious lives as a whole puzzles our ancestors for a long time, informal religions were formulated in order to settle such questions about humanity. From the first chapter Genesis of Bible, we grasp the first concept about human beings, and that is our earliest ancestors were created by the Lord and people nowadays are all decedents of the two ancestors. According to the first place in Bible, ceremonies and rituals were designed to indoctrinate us the knowledge of human itself. For example, when Abraham firstly circumcises his foreskin, the concept of humanity was provided by the Lord. These rituals like circumcise were inherited generation after generation and told the historic meaning about who we are. Similarly, in Religion reform, rituals and ceremonies were suggested to be revised and simplified, for they have no capacity of representing an unprecedented ideology. And in ancient China, Confucius attached great importance on "Li" ( that means ceremony in Chinese) and take live-long effort to revive the previous "Li" in Zhou Dynasty because he thought if a culture lose its "Li", it would be impossible for governments to reign properly, for intellectuals to gain knowledge efficiently, for common people to communicate conveniently. In short, rituals and ceremonies dominate development of society in every level.

Inherited from the past, rituals and ceremonies still have their positive influence on modern society though having been changed a little in patterns. When diplomats in old time met with each other, they showed bared right hand in order to inform the other of armlessness. This custom preserved till nowadays have become international integrity known as shaking hands which shows friendliness, respect as well as their social identity. Similar cultural phenomena are revealed vastly in contemporary society like sending flowers, formal embrace etc.

Additionally, the absence of synthesis on rituals and ceremonies is the primary reason for the pervasive sense of losing basic cognition among Chinese people. Due to the absence of religions throughout Chinese history, ceremonies and rituals, serving as catalyst to improve establishment of social value, were overlooked for long time. As a result, governments today endeavor arduously in order to revive acceptable mores, ethics, and ideology. Certain measurement designed to simulate ancient ceremonies will to some degree benefit cognition of our culture, our people and ourselves. By popularizing Confucius' thought as well as his "Li", general overview about our nation will be generated, and by educating children about internationally accepted rituals will help them ready to study other nations.

In sum, rituals and ceremonies, having no substitutes in culture, outlining people's way of live, benefiting establishment of mores should be paid sufficient attention and educated properly.