Question

What are ritual and rites of passage, and how are they connected to religion? Describe all three stages of rites of passage and explore the difference between ritual and routine.

Answer 1

Answer.

A ritual is a cultural or social practice that marks the passage from child to adult male, and each subgroup has its own customs and expectations. A rite of passage on the other hand is a ceremony of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one age group to enter another. It involves a significant change of status in society. Typically, a particular ritual is practiced during the rite of passage in one stage. Rituals can be said to be performed by other members of the family or community of the individual who is making the transition. A rite of passage however involves the active participation of the persons undergoing the developmental change.

There are rites of passage in every religion which usually involve rituals or ceremonies to mark significant moments in a person’s life, such as birth, adolescence, marriage and death. These are symbolic of the preparation of the people of faith for adopting new roles in their personal lives and religious communities. For instance, in the Catholic Christian community, baptism is an important rite of passage that occurs during infancy to mark Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults.

The first Holy communion ceremony happens when a person, usually a child in second grade or so, receives the Eucharist. This completes the initiation into the Body of Christ, or the church.

After this, as the child enters adolescence, s/he reaches the stage of Confirmation. In the sacrament of confirmation, the young members are sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit and are strengthened into the Christian life according to church doctrine.

A final rite of passage is the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, or Confession which involves confessing sins to a priest to obtain absolution for the sins committed against God and humanity. Thus through these ritualised adoption of the sacraments, a person is prepared through the different stages of life to become a member of the Catholic community.