We’re coming to the end of October, which means that Halloween is almost upon us. Whether you celebrate the spooky occasion or not, we will soon be surrounded by carved pumpkins, witches, ghosts and black cats, awaiting trick or treaters at the door.
There is a reason we’re talking about Halloween, and that’s because it is a fixture of our calendar of traditional festivities. Traditions, and the rituals associated with them, are hugely important for our wellbeing. No matter which religion, culture or ethnicity you belong to, every group of humanity has their own traditions, ritualistic practices and specific ceremonies to create structure and explain the world around us. Our ancestors used ceremony for every aspect of life – they worshipped various deities, prayed for good harvest and fertility or celebrated successful hunts. Ceremony and ritual became precious, a way to demonstrate faith and connection to divinity, and to build and strengthen community bonds.
It’s easy to think that, because religion plays a far less central role in our lives than it used to and we mostly rely on science and technology to help us understand life, we don’t need rituals or ceremonies. It’s true that they have less significance than they once did, and many now have a largely commercial focus, yet we continue to engage in ritual activities.
These may be small, family-specific traditions that have meaning only to members of that family, or they may be society-wide, like Christmas, marriage ceremonies or funeral rituals. But whatever form they take, and however they may have changed over the years, people continue to sustain these sacred rites year upon year.
That’s because these traditions are essential to our survival. They create a sense of belonging deep within us, a need for community that has kept us all safe over millennia. Coming together to practise traditional rituals, especially in times of crisis or uncertainty, creates unity that binds people in shared values which means they protect and nurture one another.
Such traditions are a method of storytelling, a way to understand actions, behaviours, natural phenomena and experiences that can be passed down to help future generations thrive, strengthen the bonds between us and connect us to our shared cultural history. Science can explain so much of why things are the way they are, but it cannot fulfil the urge to connect, to feel part of something bigger than ourselves that sharing traditions does.
Without rituals, we can feel isolated and disconnected, like we don’t belong anywhere. As we already know, feeling alone can have a very detrimental effect on our mental health – we need to share and communicate to make sense of our place in the world. Coming together with others to celebrate or mourn can help us feel connected and supported, reducing feelings of individual and collective anxiety. Rituals can also be comforting, the familiarity of practised actions soothing us when we’re stressed or upset, or helping us regain a sense of control.
Despite the diminishing diversity and intensity of rituals in modern society, ceremony continues to add depth and dimension to our life. We need ceremony to add extraordinary to the ordinary, to ground us in times of change and trouble, to remember, to rejoice, and to connect to the world, the people around us, and ourselves.
So, when it’s time to carve the pumpkin this year, embrace this ritual act as part of the fabric of tradition and storytelling that weaves around all of us, our connection to the past, present and future.
Happy Halloween!
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
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