Issue207

207."Rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are."
(486 words)
The identification of people in a societies or groups is very important. It can help person know the history of the society around him or her, thus will let him or her understand some special customs and ethics of the groups. Can, you may wonder, rituals and ceremonies help define a culture? Yes. However, are they the only way? In my point of view, besides rituals and ceremonies, there are many other methods can help doing this.I concede that rituals and ceremonies play an important role in helping define a culture. For example, since it is a long-held tradition for most Chinese people to reunite with their families during Chinese New Year, people in China today still return home from work or study to have Reunion dinner with their families on New Year's Eve, dispite the expensive ticket, dispite the tired spring transportation. Why people do this every year and never feel boring? Tradition. It is this rituals and ceremonies that help Chinese people solidifying the sense of the group, spur them proudness as a Chinese, whereever they are and wherever they go.However, in some respects, preserving cultural identity cannot be the mere purpose of ritual and ceremony. In fact, isolated cultures that do not need to distinguish themselves to preserve their identity nevertheless engage in their own distinct rituals and ceremonies. The initial purpose of ritual and ceremony is rooted not in cultural identity but rather superstition and spiritual belief. On an island near South American mainland, the citizens there today still have a ritual of some sort of dancing before every dinner, it is said that there once was an epidemic in that island and many people died, a wizard told the people that the phenomenon is due to an evil who poison the meal of the villagers, he then asked the people to dance to drive away evil spirits, and that worked. This is how such a ceremony remains till today, which has nothing to do with the sense of who they are.In addition, the cultural identity can also by solidified through other ways, such as the education upon history and language, the establishing of the regulation and law, the featured music and film, ets. When it comes to the modern society, more and more people in a groups discard their traditional rituals and ceremonies, which are always taken as lagging and superstition. They need more methods to preserve the identification belonging their own group, because did they forget where they were, they can't know where they will be.In sum, retuals and ceremonies help define a culture, and culture can help mankind in a certain society or group sense who they are. However, they are not the only way to reinforce the sense of the group. People today in such a changing world should develop other way to help increasing the sense, together with the development of the technology.