issue207 [7\8\910] 第二十次作业

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

字数：545

In this statement, the author claims that without rituals and ceremonies, societies and groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are, which I think he wrongly alleges. According to my understanding, we should accept that rituals and ceremonies would show the culture of societies, and make people have a sense of who they are. But the societies would also continuously exist without these rituals because they are just a kind of manifestation of culture, but not mean indicating the whole culture.

First of all, rituals and ceremonies always play an active role in daily time. On the one hand, with the rhythm of life faster than before, people have fewer chances to meet each others. However, the rituals and ceremonies can ask people get together to celebrate or do some rogation, which would solidify them and make them have a strong sense of who they are. For example, in mid-autumn day, Chinese, who are often too busy to meet each other, always gather to eat some delicious food and talk something funny with others, and this would make people solidify and know more about other people. On the other hand, through rituals and ceremonies foreigners would learn more about this country. Now Christmas day is not only a festival for Nazarenes, but Japanese, Malaysians and some others also celebrate on that day. With popularization of this ritual, most of people in the world know some symbol of Christmas day just like Christmas tree, Santa Claus and so on. In this sense, rituals and ceremonies would surely help people have a sense of who they are.

However, rituals and ceremonies is a kind of culture, and there also exist so many shapes of culture which also would arouse people's sense of who they are. History, which conveys intelligence and refulgence of ancestors, is the very thing that remains people to be proud of their country, love with their country, and pass this refulgence along. And instead of rituals, we would also learn well about a country by its custom which more or less represents some parts of the culture. Further more, these two shapes of culture, history and custom, both do indicate a abundant culture of country and absorb a large number of attention and tendency of people from other countries, which also bring sense of pride and glory to its people Therefore, not only the rituals and ceremonies
arouse people's sense of who they are, but also others do.

Additionally, as is so often pointed out that a large number of traditional rituals and ceremonies have already loss its original meaning or even extinct in today's world. A certain amount of rituals and ceremonies have stem from ignorance. Before our ancestors have gained enough knowledge about the unknown world, they have to cherish their hope of the deities and think that if they show the respect to the God, they must receive corresponding rewards. Under this circumstance, a set of rituals and ceremonies appeared. That is why a large number of obsolete rituals and ceremonies have become extinct in today's technological advanced society.

To sum up, rituals and ceremonies do contribute to preserving some distinctive features of one culture, but some other formats can also make people have their sense of identities.