Cultural Ritual, Essay Example

Cultural rituals exist throughout all areas of society, and they reflect a series of actions that support a specific group of people and their customs or traditions. In many cultures, births and deaths offer a variety of customs that are typically conducted in order to celebrate and/or mourn the life or death of an individual. For the purposes of this discussion, the death of a loved one and the traditions that accompany this process will be addressed in greater detail from the perspective of the Hispanic culture, emphasizing the importance of different actions that take place when an individual dies. The close-knit manner in which Hispanics celebrate the life of those who have passed away is particularly relevant, and it demonstrates that members of this culture place a significant emphasis upon the Catholic faith and how this plays a role in death and in planning the funeral and subsequent burial. In addition, the community, which often extends beyond family, remains close by in order to prepare for the traditions that take place after death has occurred.

In the Hispanic culture, when a person is on death’s door, it is customary for a priest of the Catholic faith to provide the last rites, and for prayers to be said for the dying person. Once the person has passed away, the typical custom is for a family member or friend to remain with the deceased as the preparations are made to remove the body from its current location and to take the body to the funeral home. This will ensure that the deceased person is provided with the best possible treatment given the circumstances. Once the body is prepared for the wake and funeral, family and friends gather again to remember the deceased, and often celebrate the life of the person. Most often, the group tends to reminisce about the person and his or her life on Earth, and this is achieved through laughter and even tears. During the wake, many prayers are said, including the Novena, and many flowers and candles are often present in these circumstances. During the wake and the funeral, it is likely that many tears are shed, but these tears may come from a happy place, as the deceased person’s life is celebrated in different ways.

The burial is perhaps the most significant part of the process, and this reflects the next steps towards honoring the deceased through tradition and respect. After the individual has been buried, it is also customary for the family to again celebrate the life of the person through food and drink. A social gathering typically takes place at the home of one of the deceased’s closest family members, and this gives the group another opportunity to celebrate and to share their thoughts regarding the person that has passed away. Since death is such a strong celebration of life in the Hispanic culture, it is important for family members and friends to make the most of this time together, and to recognize that death is a part of every person’s life, even when these events are tragic and difficult to manage from an emotional perspective.

The manner in which family, friends and other community members gather after a person has died is a visual reminder of the love and commitment that people in this culture have for each other. This is an important reminder of the ways in which culture brings people together in very important and even monumental ways, even when it appears as if the rest of the world might fail them. Although death is not typically a happy or celebratory event, in this culture, it is in the best interests of the deceased to celebrate his or her life, rather than to mourn the loss and how it will impact the living. Therefore, Hispanics go out of their way to make these experiences as productive and fruitful as possible, because this will show more respect to the deceased than perhaps any other activity. These traditions are critical to the culture for obvious reasons, and they enable its members to partake in rituals that support their recovery after an important loss.

The experiences associated with death in the Hispanic culture also serve as a means of gathering community members by sharing in these experiences in these settings. Members of the community who did not necessarily know the deceased person well often participate in these events, which demonstrates how death is a facilitator of love and support within these groups. This is an important means of developing group communication and emotion, which reflects an opportunity to explore the feelings and emotions of belonging to this group, and how that impacts each member in important and meaningful ways. These experiences are also relevant because they enable members of the Hispanic culture to bond and to share in their grief in constructive ways.

In other cultures, the experience of death is similar in many ways, and it is a universal means of bringing people from single cultures together, as well as in uniting those from different cultures. These experiences are relevant because they work to unite people in ways that allow them to share grief, emotions, and memories of the deceased through these rituals and customs.

The Hispanic traditions regarding death serve as an example of the conditions that exist in many other cultures, even if the specific traditions are different from one group to another. In these settings, bringing people together at wakes and funerals enables long-lost acquaintances and other friends to meet again and to laugh and cry in honor of the deceased. These circumstances make the life span even more purposeful and meaningful for members of these groups, and their interactions are timeless. Therefore, rituals of this nature serve as a unifying force in bringing people of different cultures together for a variety of reasons, and reflect a means of exploring new insights into the culture. In addition, starting new traditions often plays a role in bringing people together in other ways, and it is only natural that death is a defining force in supporting cultural norms and expectations. These efforts are very relevant in demonstrating that rituals and customs within cultures possess a strong and meaningful impact upon the people of these groups, and that as cultures change and define themselves over time in response to environmental changes, people within these cultures adapt as necessary to provide an effective support system that will accommodate these changes, even in death. Therefore, cultures represent customs and rituals that set the tone for the actions of their members in necessary and important ways.