To restore the religious beliefs of the aborigines of Australia and Oceania, the following range of sources is used: archaeological materials, as well as diary entries and memoirs of travelers dating back to the 18th – 20th centuries. In many ways, modern expeditions make it possible to solve the problems of restoring the religious and mythological picture of the world of the aborigines. Due to the fact that colonization began in the 18th century, it was followed by the process of Christianization of the aborigines, which could not but affect the beliefs of the aborigines.

Religious beliefs, customs, rituals and folk knowledge

Aborigines of Australia. All the data at our disposal allows us to judge the significant homogeneity of the religious and magical beliefs and rituals of the Australians. The predominant form of belief is totemism. Australia can undoubtedly be considered a region of classical totemism; this belief is also known in other regions of the world, but there mainly its remnants have reached us. It must be said that religious activities among the aborigines are a man's business. They are the ones who take the most active participation in the religious life of the tribe. But women are also involved in mystical experiences. Some scientists (Prof. S.A. Tokarev) associate the fading role of women in religious life with the transition from matrilineal to patrilineal clan.

Totemism - belief in the supernatural kinship between people, animals and plants, or even natural phenomena. It would be a mistake to consider totemism as the worship of material objects. The word came from English language from the language of the Algonquin Indians. The meaning of totemism is that every clan must have a totem, inherited through the male or female line. In totemism, it is necessary to distinguish between two members of the relationship: the human group (in Australia - a primitive clan, the so-called totemic group) and the totem.

In foreign (R. Smith, A. Van Gennep, E. Durkheim and some others) and domestic (S.P. Tolstov, D.K. Zelenin, A.M. Zolotarev and others) the question of origin of totemism but in many respects it can be considered resolved. Here, scientists note two key points: first, a superstitious person transfers consanguineous ties within hunting communities, where they play a huge role, to the world around us and animals, plants and natural phenomena become family; and second, in totemism there is a special connection between the primitive community and the territory, each locality is filled with religious and magical associations.

A totemic group is always exogamous, and exogamy is often considered as one of the signs of totemism. The number of totemic groups (tribes) varies within a tribe from 10 to 30.

Totemism is also of two types (based on materials from the south-eastern regions of Australia): sexual and individual. The essence sexual totemism is that, in addition to tribal totems, all men of the tribe consider one animal to be their totem, and women another. Individual totemism presupposes the presence, in addition to the same generic totem, of an individual one, inherited from the father or received at the time of initiation.

Of course, the choice of totems for each tribe was determined by the physical and geographical nature of the area. The predominant group of totems are ground and flying animals: emu, kangaroo, opossum, snake, lizard, raven, bat, etc.

The closeness between the totem and the person was expressed in totemic taboo And in totemic myths(sacred legends of tribes), as well as in sacred totemistic emblems (churingas).

In totemistic myths one can see the emergence of faith in a supreme deity, the emergence of myths about a cultural hero who gave people knowledge and customs. The myths reflected the primitive life of the Australians, age and gender stratification, and the identification of healers. There is no clear idea of ​​the other world yet. There were no sanctuaries, prayers, pantheon of deities, no cult of ancestors, no nature due to the absence of predators and earthquakes.

Different tribes had different attitudes towards the totem. In some tribes of Central Australia there was a living belief that a person is a living embodiment of his totem ( incarnation or totemic embodiment). One of these mythical incarnations is “ ratapa». Ratapa is a supernatural creature, a child’s embryo, allegedly left by mythical ancestors in various places (stones, rocks, trees, etc.). If a young woman passes by such a center, she will become pregnant. There are no ideas about the reincarnation of the soul of the deceased into one or another totem in the mythology of the Australian aborigines.

Associated with Thomism is the idea of ​​the supernatural properties of some material objects. These items are totemic emblems. Among the Aranda tribe it is churingi. Churinga– stones or oval-shaped wooden plates covered with symbolic designs.

Rubbing churingi the totem animal can reproduce with fat. Churingas are kept in caves by elders who tint and iron them. If churinga crashed - there is no person. Churinga like the body of a totemic ancestor and a person at the same time. During the totem reproduction rituals they also made “ waningu” (nurtunja) from spears, feathers in the form of a cross and it was used only in totemic ceremonies and means a connection with a specific totem.

Of particular importance are also totemic centers located within the hunting territory of the clan near a rock, tree, pond, gorge, etc. Here somewhere there was a sacred hiding place, a churing repository.

There are several types of totemistic rituals:

“Inticium” – reproduction of a totem animal or plant.

“Kwabara” – dramatization of myths about totemic ancestors during initiation rites with educational and educational purposes.

In the ritual “ inticium“only men participate in the main camp and sing songs-spells, arrange pantonymous dances, pouring blood on the rock, painting the rock with ocher, depicting the skeletons of a male and female totem animal on it, as well as the ceremonial eating of the totem as if to confirm unity. The rituals ended with rain, the revival of nature and totem animals, which was the best statement of faith.

Rite of Initiation(called in eastern Australia "bora"). Aimed at changing the religious and social status of the initiate and playing a huge role in the life of the aborigines.

Initiation rites are classified by some religious scholars (see the works of M. Eliade) as initiation rites, which are divided into several types: 1) rites of passage from childhood or adolescence to adulthood; 2) rituals for joining a secret society or brotherhood; 3) the calling of a healer, sorcerer, shaman.

In our case, we will consider only the transition from childhood or adolescence to adulthood. This ritual took place in several stages

preparing a sacred area where men will be isolated during the holiday;

separating newcomers from their mothers and from women in general;

their gathering in the thicket of the forest or in a special isolated camp, where they will be taught religious traditions tribe;

Some of the operations that novices are subjected to, the most common of which are circumcision, removal of the front tooth, cutting of the penis along the urethra, as well as notching the skin and removing hair.

Initiation rites for young men were aimed at teaching tribal customs and norms of behavior and testing them when moving into the social group of adults. The ceremony was a group one and lasted several days or even years. Initiated ( vurtya) were subjected to long-term isolation from women and children, during which time they became closer to adult men. A kind of test was conducted on the possession of weapons, hunting, gathering, and fishing skills. The boys were tested for endurance by having them circumcised, scarring their bodies, smoking in the smoke of a fire, knocking out their front teeth, and plucking their hair. They checked discipline by abstaining from food and obliging them to obtain and bring food to the elders. The concept of sacred rituals was conveyed through demonstrations of rituals with dramatizations, and the telling of myths about a cultural hero.

Initiated girls were simply raped, while defloration was, as it were, atonement for the right to live in marriage. Then the body was smeared with fat, the chest was painted, and decorations made from possum skins were attached to the back.

Magic . Malicious (witchcraft)– aimed at people from another local group through actions and spells. Available not only to healers and sorcerers, but to any aborigine. Death has always been viewed by the aborigines as the result of hostile witchcraft on the part of the enemy. Therefore, the death of any member of the tribe entailed a series of punishments for the “enemies.” First, fortune-telling was arranged to find out the true enemies and their current location, and then a detachment of avengers was sent to them with the aim of killing the culprit. In addition, they could bewitch the enemy using a sharpened stick, animal or human bone, waving it around the fire and sharply sticking it into the sand after the spell. Sometimes a witch's wand was thrown to the enemy as a sign. Ethnographers and religious scholars distinguish several types of magic:

Initiative, the meaning of which is that the initial action is performed realistically, and its completion (defeat of the enemy) belongs to higher powers.

Homeopathic, similic or imitative magic - damage through influence on human images.

Partial or contagious- through an object that was in contact with the bewitched (hair, leftover food or feces). The item was smoked over a fire, tied to a digging stick, or cast a spell through a person’s footprint on the ground, where a charmed piece of quartz was placed.

Positive magic. Presented in several varieties.

Love among Australian Aborigines it is found in elementary form. Young people using a headband chilars", bleached clay and rubbed eucalyptus bark, using a belt decoration " lonka-lonka”, a wooden pipe-pipe, smoked in a fire and, of course, with spells they bewitched women.

Healing magic(witchcraft) is the prerogative of healers using medicinal herbs, poultices, massage, bloodletting, hypnosis, sucking out the disease and spitting it out in the form of small pebbles. In parallel with healing magic, shamanism appeared among the Australian aborigines, which never left its embryonic stage. For example, among tribes Kurnai And Aranda a rite of initiation from spirits was known, when a healer went to a cave and went to bed near it, believing that a spirit would appear to him at night, pierce him with a spear and make him a shaman. Such people were called birraarki(from the tribe Kurnai).

Weather magic- causing rain by spraying water from the mouth, letting out blood and fluff. Higher sorcerers received the gift by inheritance and had a mark.

Providence magic manifested itself in the burying of stones wrapped in leaves in the fields. Was developed Mantika- predictions by signs. For example, the cry of birds, falling stars, sneezing, the appearance of a snake. Before the start of the war they always guessed.

Funeral cult . Funeral rites in Australia are very diverse. Among these various forms we can name: burial in an extended and crouched position, burial in a side niche, air burials (on scaffolds or trees), endocannibalism (eating the dead), smoking a corpse, carrying it with you, burning.

Early tribal cult . It has the most recent origin. This cult is primarily associated with the birth of the gods. Each totemic group had its own spirits, myths and rituals. There were also special supernatural beings: founding and patron spirits and monster spirits.

Talk about spiritual culture Tasmanians seems very problematic due to the circumstances already mentioned. But, nevertheless, scientists suggest the presence of the beginnings of totemistic beliefs in their midst. There were quite complex funeral customs. A characteristic feature of spiritual culture can be considered the fear of darkness at night, which apparently has an animistic origin.

Papuans and Melanesians . IN Melanesia remnants of the most ancient totemistic ideas were preserved in the form of the ancestral cult and the cult of leaders. In some parts of Melanesia totemism is dominant ( western part). The system of age-based initiations has changed here. Here there is a strengthening of the religious side of initiation rites and a weakening of their physical side (long trials, painful operations, etc.).

There were healers, fortune-tellers, sorcerers, conjurers of spirits, sacrificers and guardians of sanctuaries, and shamans. Moreover, witchcraft was inherited from his maternal uncle. In addition, there was a specialization of sorcerers - in water, earth, etc. In New Caledonia there was a caste of priest-sorcerers, and in Fiji there was a caste of court priests.

Among the Papuans, the most developed belief remained in a variety of magic (harmful, economic, healing, etc.). Among the Melanesians, as well as among the Papuans, magical beliefs played a significant role.

Among the Melanesians, magical practices associated with the belief in a mysterious power became widespread. mana».

Several points of view have been expressed about the origin of this belief. Some saw the animistic origin of the idea of mana(L.Ya. Sternberg, R. Codrington, W. Rivers, etc.), others, derived faith in mana from belief in spirits, and finally, still others believed that mana much older than animism and is a more primitive form of belief (R. Marette, K. Preis, etc.). Soviet historiography examined faith in mana as a phenomenon that grew out of social conditions. The identification of privileged members of the community in various spheres of activity (leaders, sorcerers, members of secret unions, etc.) gave rise to a special attitude towards these people, expressed in strengthening the role of their social superiority, which was reflected in the religious sphere ( mana).

Mana- a force that differs from natural force. Mana for Melanesians this is a way of explaining everything - this is success, a good harvest, etc. Moreover, mana in its meaning it can act both for harm and for good.

Besides mana the idea of taboo as a prohibition serving to protect property through male unions.

Was developed and animism . With the significant development of animism in Melanesia, it has regional specifics. For example, northwestern Melanesia (Trobriand Islands) shows us more archaic forms of animism, in contrast to Central Melanesia (Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon and New Hebrides), where animism reached to a greater extent development.

Spirits in the animistic beliefs of Melanesia are divided into two main categories:

nature spirits ( wooey, spirits associated with famous areas, located in mountains, water);

spirits of dead people ( tamate).

A distinctive feature of Melanesian animistic beliefs is that Melanesians never believed that spirits were once people.

Spirits are only visible to healers, dogs and those born with with open eyes by the night fire. Spirits steal things, wounded animals. Each group has its own spirits. They live like people, having their own totemic centers. From there in the form “ ratapa” move into new people. The soul-double can leave the body during sleep when snoring. Dreams are the journey of the soul around the world in different time periods.

Animism also manifests itself in funeral rites. People are buried lying or sitting in a grave, burned, above-ground burial and mummification were also known. There are known cases of mutilating a corpse, building a mound of stones, leaving food, lighting a fire for heating, rubbing with corpse juice, smoking a severed hand for an amulet, eating the brain, kidney fat of enemies or relatives.

Unlike the Australians, the Melanesians had ancestor cult, which manifested itself in the custom of depicting the dead " uli"made of wood and chalk, the use of sacred skulls during rituals and the storage of skulls in sacred huts. Sometimes in men's houses a real skull of a deceased ancestor was attached to a wooden figure. In addition, in men's houses - gamalakh– they kept ritual masks in the houses of their ancestors, where women and the uninitiated were not allowed.

One of the manifestations of animism was cult of leaders. The leaders, according to the Melanesians, have a large and strong mana. The power of the leader is based precisely on this strength. The spirits of deceased leaders become a special object of veneration.

Magic and animism found their expression in men's secret unions. Their most typical form is known in Central Melanesia. These are a kind of secret witchcraft societies that practice certain types of magic (Bismarck Archipelago). These unions come in two main types: open unions (which are more like social institutions) and religious-magical unions ( tamate, that lit. means “spirit of the deceased”, see above). In fact, we can consider men's secret unions and men's houses as the rudimentary form of sanctuaries, which became most widespread in Polynesia.

Totemistic beliefs have been preserved in a vestigial form. Since social processes among the Melanesians have gone further than among the Australians, the totem is no longer a clan deity, but a tribal deity.

The mythology of the Melanesians is rather poorly developed. Here the myths are mainly about cultural heroes, and a significant number of myths are associated with the ancient phratrial division.

Due to the sharp social stratification Polynesia The cult of leaders became the most widespread. For the Polynesian, the chief is a sacred person. Therefore, often the leader could also combine the functions of a priest. The deceased leader was considered a deity.

Priests continued to remain as professional ministers of worship. There are two categories of priests: official (served at sanctuaries, tohunga or kahuna) and free practitioners (fortunetellers, soothsayers, shamans, Taura or thaula).

The cult of sacrifice was known in Polynesia. They sacrificed fruits, chickens, and pigs. Sometimes human sacrifices were performed. Such a sacrifice was observed by James Cook on the island of Tahiti in 1777.

A feature of the religious practice of the Polynesians is the presence of sanctuaries. As a rule, burial grounds (burials of leaders or nobility) served as sanctuaries - morai. Each family had its own Moray, but there were also common ones. IN Morai there was an altar with images of the gods. There were also those possessed in an epileptic fit who conveyed the will of the priests. Everyone drank before and during the ceremonies. kava. These concepts are associated with the regulation of communal production in ancient times, but in class society they took on a new meaning.

The ideas about mana- an impersonal supernatural force that brings good luck and happiness and about taboo- ban. By force taboo” only sacred leaders and nobility possess. And the taboo here performs a protective function (protection of private property), as in Melanesia, and was a political tool. Tabuation replaced royal decrees and legislation. Manoj governed by priests who have their own categories and are united in castes.

The afterlife of the Polynesian was also socially heterogeneous, like the world of the living. After death, the leaders ended up on a happy island in the West, unlike commoners, whose path led to By- underground country.

There was a custom of embalming and placing the bodies of leaders in a crypt, cremation, burial in a man's house, secondary burial, burial in a boat. Sometimes the corpse of the leaders was dismembered, separating the head and placing it in a special hut in Morae.

There was a pantheon of gods: Tanya- sun god, patron of fertility, vegetation, That- god of war, Rongo- god of rain, earth, Tangoroa- the creator of all living things, connected with all the elements of nature.

Micronesia . Unlike previous areas, it is least studied. The form of religious beliefs of the Micronesians is also not easy to determine. N.N. Miklouho-Maclay spoke about the existence of shamanism here. The main concept among the Micronesians was the concept of “ wickets». Kalitas could call priests, fortune-tellers, spirit conjurers, and this title is hereditary. In an even broader sense wicket called everything supernatural. After death wickets(as clergy) became gods. Often, wickets considered as a relic of totemism. Because wickets, according to the Micronesians, every person has one that cannot be killed or eaten.

Oral and musical folk art , associated with religious and magical rituals, was divided into a) totemic myths, mythological stories about the origin of the world, heavenly bodies and natural phenomena, the origin of people, the flood, and the rainbow serpent. Interesting myths about the origin of the sun, which is associated with women. There are also myths about cultural heroes, in which they appear in a vague half-animal, half-human form. All myths are filled with the idea of ​​the special existence of totem ancestors. b) fairy tales told by everyone about half-animal people (rats, etc.).

The musical instrument was a 60x5 cm trumpet, with the addition of clapping, hitting the hips, hitting boomerangs, hitting drums made of lizard skin, and a buzzer was used for initiation. The songs consisted of 2-3 sonorous melodies, repeated at the same level. Songs were sung about a wild dog, a white rat, and an opossum. IN Melanesia a drum, gong, rattles, and a lip flute made of tubes were often used. IN Polynesia- a shell pipe, a bamboo pipe for hitting the ground with a bamboo stick, a nose flute, a wooden gong, a shark skin drum. Songs, sayings, proverbs, legends, hymns, spells, labor and war songs with collective dances, saturated with public religious and magical meaning and imitation of animals, which could last up to 5-6 nights in a row, are widespread. At the conclusion of peace, collective dances were obligatory carroboree. An elder with a spear led the dancing. All dance movements were coordinated. During the break, problems were solved. Carroboree passed between tribes.

IN Melanesia There were dance floors separately for men and women. Dances of rowers, warriors, etc. with strict rhythm. Dancing is sometimes done in masks with body paint and rattles.

Sports games and entertainment . Playing with a ball made from a bubble or leather stuffed with hair. Competitions with sports boomerangs. Playing with a string, playing with a spindle, fighting with knightly tournaments, guessing the tracks of animals, even playing with bark dolls and hide and seek. IN Polynesia they launched a kite from the inner layers of the bark of a silky tree in the shape of a bird or a stylized person. In New Zealand they competed in stilt walking, javelin throwing, water wrestling, fist fights wall to wall, surfing the waves on a board or sled on a stone complaint in Hawaii. Ball game, 14 square checkers, riddles and rope game.

Visual activity and the beginnings of art . Among the aborigines Australia shields, clubs, boomerangs, and spears at the tip were decorated. They also painted symbolic marks on rocks and stones. The drawings had a sacred plot; in addition, they also performed an aesthetic function. On cult objects, all the drawings have a conditionally symbolic meaning - images of totemistic ancestors or individual episodes from myths. Aboriginal artist Albert Namajira was very famous. Drawings were also applied to the body, weapons, utensils, churingah, waningah. According to the technique, drawings by burning, coloring with ocher, clay, charcoal, ornamentation with bird's down. A conventionally schematic style with geometric shapes, zigzags, and circles, taking into account the relief of the body, prevailed.

IN Polynesia and Melanesia scarring of the body and ornamentation of boats and weapons by burning are common. They carved wooden sculptures, ritual masks, carved flutes, and gourd vessels. IN Polynesia there were sculptures made of stone, bone, wood and rock paintings. Stone images have become world famous moari on Easter Island and the Marquesas Islands. Did carvings on the bows of boats, stilts, bowls, fishing weights, chiefs' staffs and hairpins. The drawings were also applied with ocher using a brush with symbolic images of birds and fish.

Mausoleums for the monarch of Hota Matua were famous on Easter Island. The beginnings of messianism existed in religious beliefs - everyone was waiting for the coming of the god Makemaki.

A ritual is a specific sequence of actions that together have a symbolic meaning.

If you look closely at the etymology of the word “rite”, you can see another important feature rituals - stereotyping, alternation of actions in in a certain order. “Rite” - putting in order, ordering.

Religious rituals - special group symbolically significant sequences of actions, expressions of beliefs and mystical aspirations of a person. God is abstract, and it is man’s inability to imagine the Invisible Interlocutor that leads to the emergence of ritual as a specific way of establishing communication.

Types of religious rites

Christian rituals

The Church constantly turns to God and the saints for help in specific life situations - therefore, the main ritual in Christianity is prayer. It is typical for prayer rituals to use a special language (for Catholics - Latin, for Orthodox Christians - Church Slavonic language) and special formulas for turning to God.

In addition, prayer is supported and strengthened by fasting - fasts can be one-day (Wednesday and Friday - as days of remembrance of the betrayal of Jesus and His death on the Cross, some mournful holidays, like the day of the beheading of John the Baptist), and multi-day - they usually precede great holidays (Easter, Christmas, Memorial Day of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, Assumption Day Holy Mother of God). Fasting consists of limiting one's flesh and pacifying passions, carried out with the goal of bringing the soul closer to the Lord.

In general, any significant action in the process of worship is, to one degree or another, a ritual. Christians call the ritual “the visible part of the sacrament.” Sacrament is a deeper, more spiritual concept. Religious rituals are what the eye sees, and the sacrament is that process of internal, spiritual rebirth and modification that occurs at the same time.

Types of rituals

Christians call a ceremony, for example, a wedding. The linking of two destinies in heaven is accompanied by a colorful and beautiful action - this is asking for consent to marriage, and exchanging rings, and drinking wine from the same cup - the scenario of the civil ceremony was completely copied from the wedding ceremony.

A funeral (the so-called funeral service) is a popular and often used rite, each action in it symbolically indicates the return of a person, created by the Power of the Lord from the earth and inspired by Him, back to the earth.

The ritual says: without the Spirit God's man- not a person, but only the dust of the earth.

Amazing Christianity

Rare ceremonies abound with unusual rituals - for example, the election of a pope. So, the candidate must be tested, no matter how trivial it may sound, for masculinity. In the most literal sense - a special chair with a slot is used for testing. Through the slit you need to feel the primary sexual characteristics of the potential dad.

History is silent about how willingly candidates for pontiff agree to such a test.

The tradition was allegedly started after the precedent of a woman occupying the papal throne.

No less unusual is the method of burying monks on one of greek islands- the soil there is rocky and poor, so deceased brothers are buried in the ground only for a while. Then they dig them up, wash them with honey and wine, and if the color of the bones is pale honey, the bones are placed in a special room in the monastery - the brass. If the bones are dark, they are buried again, and the prayer for the deceased intensifies. It is believed that this is the only way to help cleanse the spirit of the deceased.

Many existing religious rituals, customs and ceremonies exist very for a long time, because they came to us from ancient times, when people used them as a kind of energy support and assistance in various everyday situations.

Ancient rituals and ceremonies

It is no secret that in ancient times people hunted and thus obtained food for themselves. However, the hunt was not successful every time, and in order to avoid starvation, people tried to invoke good luck with signs: for example, they painted animals on the rocks and then hit them with spears, symbolizing a successful outcome.

At the same time, for example, the ritual of human burial began to take shape. Flowers, weapons and objects that a person used during life were supposed to be placed in the grave. As a rule, all rituals denote actions that connect a person with the other world.

Later, people began to appear in the tribe to conduct rituals and ceremonies. special person, who was called a magician or sorcerer. They performed all the actions themselves and taught others to perform them. Slavic rituals and rituals may differ from the rituals of other peoples, since they all have their own specifics.

Religious rites and rituals: then and now

In each era, rituals became more and more complex. People found new ways to ask the gods for what they wanted. Nowadays, each religion has its own rites and rituals, which can be daily (for example), calendar (for example, rites and rituals for Christmas) or single - for example, baptism.

As in our days, a person could pray alone, or by coming to a special temple. In those days, each person had his own small altar at home, at which he was also supposed to pray.

Tribes have lived on Siberian soil since ancient times northern peoples, who had shamans in their tribe who were engaged exclusively in rites and rituals. According to myths, the shaman was chosen by the spirits themselves - the person who was supposed to become him was taken to another world, taken apart and created anew, in a new capacity. Such a person knew how to walk between worlds, could heal people, install energy protection, and influence the weather. Traditionally, their rituals used music - the ringing of a tambourine.

It’s interesting, but the Buryats and other peoples of the north, who have preserved their culture today, still have shamans who really have amazing abilities: they can cast and remove a curse or predict fate.

Religious rites and rituals - what are they? Perhaps some people believe that only those who are closely associated with religion encounter such phenomena. However, in reality, such rituals have long been intertwined with everyday life. ordinary people. What can we say about a believer, for whom religious customs and rituals are an integral part of existence.

And yet, despite this, many remain in the shadows interesting questions. For example, even the meaning of the word “religious rite” raises a number of confusions. After all, how do you understand which rituals should be classified as them and which ones should not? Or what's the difference between Orthodox sacraments and Catholic? And finally, how long ago was the first religious ceremony held? So, let's look at everything in order.

The meaning of the word "religious rite"

As always, you need to start from the root of the problem, namely exact value of this expression. So, a religious ritual is a certain action based on a person’s mystical idea of ​​the surrounding reality.

That is, the main task of such a ritual is to strengthen the connection of the believer with his higher principle, or God. It does not matter at all whether such an action is carried out individually or is a collective event.

What is a religious ceremony?

Yet it is not enough just to know the meaning of this word. To fully understand its essence, it is necessary to look at everything from a special angle, based on illustrative examples and arguments. That's why let's look at what a religious ceremony actually is.

To begin with, let's take as an example finger baptism, which is common among all Christians. It would seem that there is nothing mystical, just ordinary manipulation of the hand in in a given order which is used during prayer. And yet it is a religious rite... Do you know why?

Because there are two here important points. Firstly, an established ritual that has remained unchanged for all Christians for many centuries. Secondly, it is based on the belief that such an action can shed God's grace on a person.

Based on this, we can draw the following conclusion: any custom that combines these two points is a religious rite.

The first mystical sacraments

Nobody knows exactly when man began to believe that the world is controlled. After all, this first happened in those days when our distant ancestors did not yet know how to write. The only evidence of their intelligent lifestyle is the drawings and incisions on the rocks. However, even this meager information is enough to understand what a religious rite was among ancient people.

In those distant times, a person’s life directly depended on how favorable Mother Nature was to him. Just imagine how majestic it was for people who did not have the slightest idea about the laws of physics and chemistry. Consequently, it is not surprising that over the years they began to attribute to her the presence of her own will and intelligence.

Therefore, to answer the question: “What is a religious rite among ancient people?” it will be quite simple. Almost all of their rituals were aimed at appeasing the spirits of nature so that they would grant them their protection.

This belief in the power of sacred rites has had a marked influence throughout human history. After all, it was thanks to the ancient sacraments that the first priests appeared - people who communicated with otherworldly forces.

Rituals of the Slavs

Before the arrival of Christianity in Rus', our ancestors were pagans. They believed in the existence of many gods, forming Slavic pantheon. Thus, warriors worshiped Perun, peasants - Lada, and creative people - Veles.

Initially, rituals were invented ordinary people, in order to somehow appease the beloved deity. A little later, the priests themselves began to select the most favorable rituals and insist on what was of higher intelligence.

It got to the point that not a single holiday or significant event was complete without a religious sacrament. And the more often and systematically they were repeated, the stronger they sank into people’s consciousness. Over the years they have become an integral part everyday life Slavs and were taken by the people as a matter of course.

For example, peasants always made a sacrifice to Lada before starting sowing work. After all, if this is not done, then the goddess will not bestow her grace on the crops, and then the harvest will be bad. The same applied to other aspects of the life of the Slavs: the birth of children, weddings, war and death. Each occasion had its own religious ritual, aimed at strengthening the relationship between deity and man.

What about other countries and continents?

The most curious thing is that such a worldview was inherent in almost all nations and peoples. Thus, the Greeks believed in the gods of Olympus, the Egyptians - in the powerful and others, no less strong creatures. And the indigenous people of Africa had so many different deities that it is not possible to count them.

And they all practiced religious rituals. For example, the Greeks made rich offerings to their gods in temples, and on holidays they organized festivities with masquerade. The Egyptians built pyramids so that their pharaohs would live there even after death. And some ate human hearts, hoping in this way to gain the strength and courage of a defeated enemy.

Religious rituals in the modern world

Despite the fact that now has come the age of popularization scientific theories and atheistic views, religious rituals have not gone away. Moreover, some of them are so deeply ingrained in people’s minds that they have become the norm. Let's look at the most popular rituals of two giant religions - Christianity and Islam.

So let's start with Orthodox baptism children. This religious rite is considered one of the most ancient in our history. According to his laws, small children are washed with holy water in order to cleanse them of original sin. In addition, Christians believe that during baptism God gives a person a guardian angel.

Another ancient religious ritual that has survived to this day is the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. They believe that every true believer should make such a trip at least once in his life in order to show his devotion to Allah.

Devotion bordering on fanaticism

However, not all rituals and ceremonies are harmless. Unfortunately, sometimes faith develops into fanaticism, and then the first victims appear. In particular, some religious rituals require blood, sometimes even human. And a fanatical believer is ready to present such a gift. After all, this is God's will, and human life compared to her - just dust.

At the same time, the bloody trail from religious rituals stretches from the very depths of history, then disappearing, then appearing again. What are they worth? Crusades Christians or Muslim holy wars against infidels. Not to mention the fact that the ancient Aztecs sacrificed hundreds, or even thousands, of people just to satisfy the mystical appetite of the Sun God.

In this regard, it should be understood that religious rituals can be carried out both for good and vice versa. At the same time, it is not God who creates evil, but people, because it is they who ultimately determine the essence and order of the ritual.

RELIGIOUS RITES - symbolic. collective actions that embody relats, ideas and ideas and are aimed at supernaturals. illusory objects. O. r. represent the most important component of the cult of religions. Belief in, which lies at the basis of all religiosity, also presupposes belief in the existence of a two-way relationship between man and supernatural beings. objects. O. r. act as ways of realizing these relationships, ways of influencing religions. man to the supernatural. The oldest form O. r., apparently, is magic, which served as an illusory means of practical influence of primitive. people to the world around them. In modern world. religions O. r. form complex system ritual actions, in the center of the cut is, that is, a collective OR, performed by believers in a church or other special. place. O. r. are important means ideological and emotional-psychological. influence on believers, they form a system of familiar religions. images and ideas in their minds and cult stereotypes in their behavior. O. r. are distinguished by great conservatism. Their repeated repetition turns into a habit and becomes a need for the believer. Before plural churches today vr. There is a problem of adaptation of the archaic in its origin OR. to modern times.

Atheistic Dictionary. - M.: Politizdat. Under general ed. M. P. Novikova. 1986 .

See what “RELIGIOUS RITES” are in other dictionaries:

RITES AND MYTHS- The connection between rite (ritual) and myth has long been noted by researchers. The ritual is, as it were, a dramatization of the myth, and the myth acts as an explanation or justification for the ritual being performed, its interpretation. This “myth-rite” connection is especially clearly manifested... Encyclopedia of Mythology

Rituals of the Scandinavian cult- The article is part of a series about Northern Paganism... Wikipedia

Religious attacks- (crimes) in the terminology of the current law, crimes against faith and the regulations protecting it; in the terminology of the draft criminal code, encroachments on laws protecting faith. According to Jewish legal views, the concept of sin and...

Rituals and holidays- Nouns DIVINE SERVICE, service, high. priesthood, obsolete service. Rituals and religious actions performed by clergy with the participation of believers, as a rule, in a special room, determined by the requirements... ... Dictionary of Russian synonyms

Liturgical rites- ♦ (ENG devotions, liturgical) religious activities, including holidays and rituals, in which feelings for God are expressed through worship... Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms

Crisis Rites- religious or ritualized rituals performed during a crisis (natural disasters, crop failure, etc.) and having significant psychotherapeutic significance for those people who believe in the effectiveness of such rituals. IN modern societies… … Encyclopedic Dictionary in psychology and pedagogy

Church rituals- Ritual is the outward expression of a person’s beliefs. Man is a sensually spiritual being, in whose nature the ideal spiritual being is united with the sensual and material: therefore, in his imagination he tries to clothe the ideal in... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

Church rituals- a person is a phenomenon that combines the sensual and spiritual sides. Therefore, the world is abstract, it strives to embody the ideal in some kind of real image, because only then does it receive meaning for a person and become... ... Complete Orthodox Theological Encyclopedic Dictionary

Peoples of Siberia religious beliefs- More than 30 aboriginal peoples live in Siberia, belonging to 9 language groups: 1) Samoyed (Nenets, Enets, Nganasans, Selkups); 2) Ugric (Khanty, Mansi), Ugrians and Samodians are often included in one, Uralic, family of languages; 3) standing... ...

Buryat religious beliefs- Buryats indigenous people Buryatia. They also live in the Irkutsk and Chita regions. The number of Buryats in Russia is 421 thousand people, including 249.5 thousand in Buryatia (1989). Among the Buryats, Buddhism (Lamaism), Christianity (Orthodoxy) and traditional... ... Religions of the peoples of modern Russia

Books

• , Ya. D. Koblov. Religious rites and customs of the Mohammedan Tatars (when naming a newborn, wedding and funeral rites). Reproduced in the original author's spelling of the 1908 edition... Buy for 1927 UAH (Ukraine only)
• Religious rites and customs of the Mohammedan Tatars, Ya. D. Koblov. This book will be produced in accordance with your order using Print-on-Demand technology. Religious rites and customs of the Mohammedan Tatars (when naming a newborn, wedding ceremonies and...