issue 187

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ISSUE 187
rituals and ceremonies help define a culture, without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are.

In china or over the huge world, during a year, a great number of interesting and meaningful rituals, ceremonies and festivals accompany us, each of them will  help define a distinctive culture. All these rituals and ceremonies are different but are relevant to each other to a large extent. Let's focus on an abundant of diverse rituals and ceremonies, such as, the Spring Festival, and the dragon boat festival, and the Valentine's Day, and the Christmas Day and the like. For centuries, these rituals and ceremonies have formed the established cultures. We chinese people often have a big party and spend the enjoyable time together with our families or our dear friends. And it is almost the same as the people of the western counties in the Charistmas Day. The Valentine's Day, over the entire world, is another special but sweet day for the one who have lover. In my point of view, not only the certain cultures which stem from the long-term rituals and ceremonies will affect our material lives, but also influence our spiritual lives. They make the societies and groups to realize themselves, to improve the understanding of the whole world and even the culture. Along with the culture and activities offered by the rituals and ceremonies, societies and groups absolutely do not have a sense of  diminished sense of who they are.

Because of the existence of so many diverse rituals and ceremonies. In order to memorize them, or to emphasize the importance of they, societies and groups will celebrate them through plenty of acticitives. Thus, some people can thoroughly enjoy the happiness brought about by the activities. During the interactions, they increase the friendship via dinnars, most of them will drink a lot , sing songs, dance to the graceful music all day and all night, etc. whereas, some one will pray sincerely, they choose to stay at a tranquie temple or other divine areas which can seem as the precious path towards the heaven or the god. Especially, when comes the spring festival, in most rural areas of china, mostly the whole of the country's residents will gather together at some vast places owned by the public. Take my hometown for an apparent example, at the right day of the spring festival, after dinnar with their offsprings, not to stay alone at home, many old grandparents of this country will prefer to sit together and talk about the affairs and issues which interest them very much. So, looking at this scenery and experiencing the activities of that kind every time, i was totally moved by the situations and the culture originated from the common rituals and the ceremonies.
We as the societies and groups; we as the timy country; we as human; whatever the troublesome environment we are facing at, the rituals and ceremonies hold us tightly.
We may gain a lot from the culture that derives from the different rituals and ceremonies to satify our material desires. Beside this superficial target, however, appreciating the culture upon the grand rituals and ceremonies is less a means of to satify our material desires than to modify our spirtual defects.

In my personal view, most of human born to the earth are imperfect with countless flaws within. Man is evil to some degree, the responsibility or the duty of most of us is to amend the peccadilloes or to ameliorate the human nature. So, at this point, the culture upon the rituals and ceremonies serves as a tool, which can better our human being. Just as it has said above that during a special ritual or ceremony, people may go to the temple and stay there for days, praying sincerely. The Lingyin Temple, one of the most extraordinary and outstanding temples in china, especially, when the spring festival comes, embraces a vast number of people come from all over the china to pray for a better future and a happy life both for themselves and their family every year. So, too, is the chrisitan, they go to church every weekend to wash their deep soul. All these activities are involved in many different rituals and ceremonies. Not only can rituals and ceremonies make us realize who we are, but also they can push us toward the right direction. They perform as a strong belief, and the culture gives us strength and hope in order not to lose ourselves.

In all, a culture with no certain shape have to carry out through some fixed rituals and ceremnies. Only in this way that  can the culture shines as the sun in the sky permanently; only in this way that can the culture burning as the lamp to point out the destination for us all; only in this way that can the culture lighting before sunrise.