Emerging Ritual in Secular Societies edited by Jeltje Gordon-Lennox. Jessica Kingsley, London 2017. Pbk. 260 pages. £20.99.
This book is a pioneering academic study of the subject. I am reviewing the book as a former practitioner, a retired British Humanist Association (BHA) accredited celebrant. I was inevitably most engaged by the chapters which dealt with case studies.
Some of the academic chapters were interesting. In the chapter 'The Art of Ritual and the Ritual of Art', Ellen Dissanayake locates the origins of human ritual in the sometimes ritualised interplay between mother and baby and other adults with babies and young children – the special tones of voice and facial expressions adults use. The interplay between mother and child strengthens the bonding essential to the survival of a human infant born in a very under-developed state compared with that of other mammals at birth.
In 'Human Rituals and Ethology: A Scholar's Journey' Matthieu Smyth discusses the place of ritual in strengthening social bonds and bonds between communities, a function that is jeopardised by fragmented modern societies where, he argues, social cohesion is counter cultural. He argues that 'a ritual naturally belongs to the community.' He holds that there are very few tightly knit communities that are not pre-modern. However, in his final paragraph he looks forward to studying rituals such as non-religious weddings and funerals in 'the informal communities that benefit from them'. He wishes 'to examine how these rituals function to bring people together and might help to provide a common narrative of the origins and destiny of humankind' as he believes rituals did in pre-modern societies.
The 'Case Study; A Nordic Rite of Passage Comes of Age' deals with the development of secular 'Confirmation' ceremonies in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark. 'Confirmation' has always been very significant in Nordic cultures. Until 1849 in some of these cultures young people could not marry, take adult jobs or even wear adult clothes until they had been confirmed into the state church. Christian confirmation was compulsory in Norway until 1911. In 1951, the Norwegian Humanist Association (NHA) developed a secular alternative to religious confirmation. The writer does not mention the fact that the NHA is probably the largest, best funded and strongest Humanist Association in the world, because Norwegian citizens can choose to pay their 'Church Tax' to the Norwegian Humanist Association. All the secular confirmations are preceded by preparation either in regular weekly sessions or more intensively over one or two weekends. The preparation varies slightly from country to country but there is always an emphasis on human rights, discussion of humanism and helping young people to develop their own approach to life. Critical thinking is also a mandatory part of the preparation. The preparation doesn't seek to provide easy answers but to encourage reflection.
Andres Allemand Smaller, a celebrant working in Geneva, presents a thought-provoking discussion of the process of developing an authentic multi-cultural wedding ceremony. The case study of the funeral of a violinist and violin teacher surprised me only in not including any poetry or prose readings. The case study by Isabel Russo, a BHA celebrant, of a combined memorial and wedding ceremony was illuminating and moving. It involved two men who had been civil partners and had intended to marry as soon as they could but one of them died before that was possible. The celebrant and the survivor worked closely together to devise a memorial that included the survivor making marriage vows to his dead partner and a wedding ring. For the survivor, the ceremony brought 'a powerful sense of healing, closure and renewal.'
In the later chapters the book discusses the spontaneous rituals of remembrance with which we are all now familiar – the piles of flowers by the side of the road where an accident happened; the flowers, candles, teddy bears and messages placed outside homes and schools where a death has occurred; the informal acts of remembrance after terrorist attacks. No one organises these. They arise organically out of people's sense of grief and shock.
The contributors to this book come from Argentina, Switzerland, the USA, Iceland, Canada, Australia, Norway, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Italy and the United Kingdom – an international and the authors hope, a continuing conversation.
Barbara Burfoot is a retired humanist celebrant and a former Chair of SOF Trustees.