Crucial stages of life

Birth, puberty, marriage, and death have been times of sacred significance for peoples of all cultures from time immemorial. They signify changes in the status of a person’s being in terms of a person’s relationship with fellow members of his or her society and the realm of the sacred or holy that informs the person of the practical and symbolic ramifications of the new status. These times of change, therefore, have become occasions for feasts and festivals. Some are very elaborate and of long duration; others, especially under the influence of modern secularization, have been abruptly shortened or eliminated.

Birth, a most sacred time in the religions of the world, is celebrated by rites and festivities that appear to be incongruous or inconsistent in many religions. Mothers of newborn children are considered both as participants of the sacred by having brought forth a new being into the world and as persons who are ritually unclean (e.g., among the Israelites and Zoroastrians), probably because of the presence of blood at birth, the loss of which may symbolize the loss of some of the life-sustaining force. Among Brazilian Indians, however, both the father and the mother participate in a ceremony of seclusion for five days (eating only certain foods) in order to protect the sacredness and health of the new mother and child. Seclusion, thus, need not be interpreted negatively. Among the Kikuyu of eastern Africa, seclusion is a symbol of death and resurrection. The mother and child symbolically die and rise again during and after a ceremony of seclusion, after which a feast is held in which a goat is sacrificed and prayers are said. The whole community rejoices that a new child has become a part of human society.

The Christian celebration of birth culminates in the sacrament of Baptism, a symbol of the death of the old person and the rebirth of the new person in Christ. As such, it is a rite of purification, using water and the words of institution by Christ. After the sacrament has been solemnized, Christians in many areas have engaged in much feasting to emphasize the joy inherent in the “new birth.”

Among the ancient pre-Christian Norsemen, baptism by means of water was believed to impart divine and eternal life to men and even to preserve men from death—so that they “will not perish in war” nor “fall before any sword.” Thus, when St. Boniface baptized members of Germanic tribes in the 8th century, he was ordered by Pope Gregory III to do so only according to the formula “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Because whole tribes became Christian en masse during this period, the feasts celebrating the incorporation of the tribe into the church often lasted for several days and included folk customs of which the church did not especially approve, such as those connected with merrymaking (e.g., the drinking of mead).

Puberty, the transition into adulthood, has been celebrated since ancient times by various rituals and festivals. In the secular sphere, it is celebrated in democratic countries by the granting of the right to vote to persons upon the attainment of a certain age. In ancient Greece, young men of the ages of 16 or 17 were admitted as full members of the city-state; but before they were granted voting privileges, they had to swear allegiance to the religion of the city; this made them religious citizens and subsequently adults. After he had attained adulthood, a young Greek could participate in military service and could marry. In the United States in the early 1970s, citizens having attained the age of 18 were granted the right to vote; but the ceremony commemorating this right has been a secularized de-emphasis of this important rite of passage: the mere signing of one’s name on a registration certificate.

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India: Festivals and holidays

Puberty rites are celebrated in various ways according to the prevailing religious and social customs. Among the Masai of eastern Africa, youths pass from childhood to adulthood by the rite of circumcision. After various preliminary activities, the boys (12 to 16 years of age) are circumcised and the blood released from the operation is later placed on their heads. After four days of seclusion and a period during which they are dressed in female attire, their heads are shaved and they attain the status of adults and thus can become warriors. Girls attain adulthood by means of similar practices: the cutting or piercing of sexual organs. Among the Kamba of eastern Africa, who perform similar puberty rites of passage, those initiated into adulthood are given presents, and offerings are made to the ancestors. A significant aspect of the festival celebrating the rite of passing from childhood to adulthood is the return from seclusion; this return to their communities symbolizes a type of resurrection and renewal as new persons—adults.

Among the churches of the 16th-century Reformation, the rite of confirmation in the Anglican and Lutheran churches has been a type of puberty rite. The child, who had been a baptized member of the church, became, in effect, an adult, assuming personal responsibility and the privilege of participating in the Eucharist. In the early 1970s, however, the instructional aspect of confirmation—important in almost all pre-puberty practices—has been diminished, especially in some Lutheran churches in the United States, thus de-emphasizing the importance of confirmation as a rite of passage. As the church has become increasingly influenced by secularization processes in the 20th century, the customary feasting to celebrate the rite of confirmation has decreased in practice.

Marriage, the rite of passage from the single to the united state, has been celebrated with many forms of feasts and festivals. Connected with the hieros gamos (“sacred marriage”) of the Mesopotamian Akitu (New Year’s festival), and of the Israelite Sukkoth (Feast of Tabernacles)—during the month of Tishri (the first month of the year)—which had both sexual and covenantal overtones, the rite of marriage developed into a legal and religious act in Judaism and into a sacrament in Roman Catholic and Eastern Christianity. In most religions the married state is considered superior to the single, though tensions between these two states of existence exist in most religions. Monks and nuns who vow to live in a celibate state often celebrate a symbolic marriage to the founder of their religion (e.g., to Christ) or to a religious institution (e.g., the church). In the Talmud, a compendium of Jewish law, lore, and commentary, the statement is made that “He who does not marry is like a murderer and he mutilates (violates) the image of God.” In the Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism, a similar statement is made: “The man who is married stands above him who is not married.” Thus, the wedding has become the most significant domestic festival in both the secular and religious realms, in spite of the ascetic tendencies that exist in certain sectors of Christianity, Buddhism, and other religions. The wedding ceremony has often been accompanied by feasting and gift-giving to express the concern of the community for a successful participation within the community and an extension of the community through the procreation of children. Among African religions, marriage as a rite of passage is incomplete if procreation is avoided or not accomplished. After a wedding among the Batoro of Uganda in Africa, dancing and feasting last until the following morning. Later on, gifts are given to the bride’s family in order to show gratitude, to compensate for her absence, and to legalize the marriage agreement.

The final rite of passage, death, has brought about numerous festival customs, all the way from the ritual sacrifice of the widow in Hinduism (until the 19th century) to the commercialization of death rites in Western societies. Just as the early Hebrews believed that life passes on to death when the breath (ruaḥ) leaves the body, so also do Eskimos in the 20th century believe that death occurs when breath (soul) leaves the body and that death may be a moment when one is translated into another form of life. Among the ancient Greeks, Thanatos (death) is the twin brother of Hypnos (sleep), and from this conceptional relationship may come the view that death is merely a sleeping state in the passage from this life to an afterlife. Festivities surrounding rites include the customs of playing mournful (and, sometimes, joyful) music, speaking eulogies, performing sacramental acts (e.g., extreme unction in the Roman Catholic Church), performing elaborate or simple embalming practices (e.g., the lengthy procedural techniques of the ancient Egyptians and the rapid techniques of modern morticians), utilizing appropriate and expected bodily gestures and vocal expressions, and feasts of varied elaborateness, depending on the economic or social circumstances of the deceased or his next of kin. Flowers often play important roles in the festivities connected with death rites. In the 20th century, a change from mourning to joyful expectation has occurred in the funeral rites of some Christian churches. Among some African tribes, such as the Ndebele of Zimbabwe, funeral processions, sacrifices, ceremonial washings, and protective medicine are included in the festivities that symbolically celebrate man’s conquest over death (see also rite of passage ).

Times of commemoration and remembrance

Festivals of commemoration are among the most important of the sacred times. Some festivals commemorate important events in mythology or the birth, inauguration, or victory of a founder of a religion, a god, or a hero. In Hinduism, for example, the Vaikunta-ekadashi festival in December–January commemorates the victory of the goddess Ekadashi Devi in her killing of a demon; and the Ganesh Chaturthi commemorates the birthday of Ganesha, the elephant-headed god of fortune. Another major Hindu festival, Navratri, commemorates the victory of the goddess Durga over the buffalo-headed demon Mahisha (as does Durga Puja); and Rama Navami commemorates the birth of Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, one of India’s great epics. In Chinese Buddhism, the birthdays of Guanyin (or Avalokiteshvara), Amitabha, and Shakyamuni (the first two being bodhisattvas, or buddhas-to-be, and the last being the Buddha himself) were celebrated before the 1950s with much ceremony. The nativity of Christ (or Christmas) is the most widely celebrated “birthday” of a divine being, though in the 20th century Christmas has been subjected to a wide variety of secular influences.