When we began to gather material for this section of our website, we seriously questioned whether “ritual” was the right word to use. For some, the word conjures up images of coercive, rule-bound religious practices that have lost all their spontaneity and passion. For others, “ritual” resonates with dark, “black magic” overtones. We searched for another name but just couldn’t come up with something that hit the mark: “celebration” was too general, since the term covers every sort of party or festival; “ceremony” sounded too formal; “gathering” didn’t capture the intensity of the experience we want to describe.

Ritual seems to be the best word we’ve got. Here is our definition:

A ritual is an event whose significance is co-created by those participating in it. Rituals are experiences. They are not about “truth” or “the right way to do things.” Instead, they are like the wonderful imagination games we used to play as children, which were at the same time intensely real and serious, and also just games: they were for fun, for beauty, for the sheer exhilaration of being alive.

Rituals occur in time, but they are moments of presence, when we are step outside of the ordinary flow of our lives. Rituals occur “here, now”. They are periods during which we suspend our disbelief – our doubts and worries about the project of human life – and agree instead to invite magic into existence.

Rituals may be brief or long, may include thousands of people or a single person. They may involve props, food, fire, processions, singing, dancing, meditation, or none of these elements. They may be fully choreographed and scripted ahead of time, or improvised on the spot. They may be sober and subdued or noisy and exuberant. The only requirement is that those involved are willing for a time to enchant the world: in other words, to play!