Quotes About Ritual

The morning skate was a game-day ritual dating back to the seventies, introduced in North America by the Russians, and used as an attendance taking to make sure players who may have been out carousing the night before finished sweating the alcohol out of their system before the game.

The Jewish religion says it's not a child until it's two-thirds out of the woman's body--until the head has completely emerged.

If a woman were about to proceed to her execution, she would demand a little time to perfect her toilet.

I love lighting Shabbat candles at the onset of Shabbat. It helps me create a strong and firm demarcation of time.

Do you wake up in the morning and first thing, centre yourself by looking at your palms together? Thereby have a nice day.

In Catholicism, the pint, the pipe and the Cross can all fit together.

A pool game mixes ritual with geometry.

They feed us the way the bread of communion does, with a nourishment that seems to form new flesh. According

She holds every dress briefly by its shoulders like it's a schoolkid she's checking out for smudges before church. Then one by one they get flung away from her and into the fire.

foot-washing Baptists

As a feature of the common man's funeral, the open casket is a relatively recent development: around 150 years. According to Mack, it serves several purposes, aside from providing what undertakers call "the memory picture." It reassures the family that, one, their loved one is unequivocally dead and not about to be buried alive, and, two, that the body in the casket is indeed their loved one, and not the stiff from the container beside his.

freshly dead popes are struck thrice on the forehead with a special silver hammer.

The sour smell was not the smell of fungus. It was unlit incense, and cold ashes, and unsaid prayers. I

Come in early, so there'll be time to pop corn,' Mrs. Ray said. If she mentioned popping corn, they always came in early. So she usually mentioned it.

They always ate and made tea on the alcohol lamp before going to bed. This was quite in the German tradition, Tilda said. Germans in their homes ate six meals a day: breakfast, second breakfast, dinner, afternoon coffee, supper and in the evening tea or beer with sandwiches and kuchen. Betsy, in the cherry-red bathrobe, and Tilda in a blue one, feasted merrily.

She never drank tea at home. Tea was for England.

Brewing and serving tea is an aesthetic ritual in Iran, performed several times a day. We serve tea in transparent glasses, small and shapely, the most popular of which is called slim-waisted: round and full at the top, narrow in the middle and round and full at the bottom. The color of the tea and its subtle aroma are an indication of the brewer's skill.

Brewing and serving tea is an aesthetic ritual in Iran, performed several times a day. We serve tea in transparent glasses, small and shapely, the most popular of which is call slim-wasted:round and full at the top, narrow in the middle and round and full at the bottom. The color of the tea and its subtle aroma are and indication of the brewer's skill.

This had also become a ritual, to call friends and family to make sure they were safe, knowing that your own relief implied someone else's death.

This is how we celebrate the Day of the Dead in America: by turning up our collars against the scent of earthworms calling us home.

Even feigning surprise, pretending it was unexpected and saying a ritual thanks, is surely wiser than just expecting everything so carelessly.

Sylvain] told us that in India it's sometimes considered a purification ritual to go home and spend a year eating everything from one place--ideally, even to grow it yourself. I liked this name for what we had done: a purification ritual, to cultivate health and gratitude. It sounds so much better than wackadoo.

cradling the soup terrine that she set

The clock in the church tower