Tis The Season For Rituals

In the United States that period from Thanksgiving until the new year is what I call the ritual season. In a world of constant and rapid change, we settle into a period where we reconnect with the culture's past and our own family or personal traditions. In short, we seek and relish rituals, things that we deride much of the rest of the year. That's why, for example, most Americans crave the over the top Thanksgiving turkey dinner. Turkey is a food that Americans mostly avoid the rest of the year. Yet at Thanksgiving we would feel empty, almost traitorous to out cultural heritage if we ate something else instead.

This phenomenon of a ritual season is not unique to this country. Every country has its own ritual seasons. Is there any bigger one that the Asian New Year ritual season each winter? It seems to be a human need to escape the maddening throw away world in which we now live, and instead seek comfort in tradition and stability. Yet few people reflect on what they are doing when escaping.

Ideally, we should reflect and evaluate whether our cell phone, high tech, informal, sterile world is the best one for us. For some it may be. The young have less of a cultural past and feel more comfort in the new. But those of us caught in the modern world, against our internal clock, at ritual season have the opportunity to escape permanently if we wish. When out of the absorption of modernity we can more clearly see the past and evaluate it unabated, without interference. That's one of the lessons of ritual seasons.

Humans can never live only in the past, but is living only in the cell world also possible? Do those who let technology direct their lives benefit or suffer from their choice. The old person who shakes his or her head at the "modern way" is no different from the younger one who shakes his or her head at tradition. The ritual season should be the time to put one foot in the past and one in the present and future. If or until we do we have grounds to determine what kind of environment is best for our own lives. May all your seasons be the ones most suitable to you