Bizzare Religious Rituals

[(Q)]

A thread to place the totally bizarre religious rituals.

Indians Throw Babies 50ft From Roof To Thank God.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/truly-bizarre-indians-throw-babies-50ft-from-roof-to-thank-god/3250807803

[S.A.M.]

We've already done that one. <searches for thread, gives up>

Have you heard about the one where they burn red chillies in a pot and smoke you with the flames?

/jk

You'll see this practically everywhere, its a protection from the evil eye

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3039/2642646168_94ca95e47e.jpg

[Simon Anders]

Well, there's that weird if you want to be powerful in American politics here's a strange ritual gathering

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Grove
and for a film
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-82095917705734983

[Simon Anders]

And then there is the strange 'finance' ritual carried out in New York and other places
(note: the ritual is visible when the similarly outfitted mostly men raise their arms and move their bodies ecstatically in honor of their God - wait a minute or so.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtc58sTsTpE&feature=related

[Simon Anders]

I have never understood this ritual
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PGB8x46P-A
which seems to be a subritual of something else I have never understood.

religious people are so strange.

[PsychoticEpisode]

Q....is there a religious ritual that isn't bizarre?

[Simon Anders]

Fraternities and organizations like the Skull and Bones society.
And what's all the meaning attached to shirts that are tight around the neck and neckties in the business world?
Wedding dresses?
Graduation caps and gowns?
Military songs about guns and penises?
Military life in general?
Boardroom etiquette
How rich people want servants to behave?
What is this sports car ritual so many men and some women have?

Sports' fans rituals? Huge industry, many rituals. Billions of dollars. Maybe trillions, yeah, probably trillions. Strange rituals abound.

Masonic lodges?

Commercials?

The wearing of brand name clothing rituals?

The Electoral College and all the strange rituals associated?

Are there really people who think strange rituals are limited to religions?

[Simon Anders]

Anthropology 101 might be a good place to start. One sees the rituals of others, but often does not realize one's own rituals. Let alone how odd they are.

Two businessmen meeting for the first time engage in a bizarre almost mechanical dance, complete with scripted call and response, costumes, food or drink offerings. Many subjects are taboo. Body movements are highly restricted and scripted. Much dialogue when they 'get down to business' is in code. All ceremonies end in a similar ritualized dance.

[PsychoticEpisode]

We are a ritualistic society. I think Q could be referring to rituals in which someone is either at risk or is actual hurt in the process. More along the lines of the Christian Filippino group that dons the thorns, carries the cross, whips themselves bloody and even nail a willing someone to the cross. Every Easter you can catch it on the news shows.

Throwing babies from a tower onto a sheet seems relatively safe but sooner or later a kid is going to get hurt. Dumb rituals take precedence over bizarre.

[Simon Anders]

We are a ritualistic society. I think Q could be referring to rituals in which someone is either at risk or is actual hurt in the process. .
Boxing, professional hockey, frat drinking rituals, male american eating rituals........

[PsychoticEpisode]

Boxing, professional hockey, frat drinking rituals, male american eating rituals........

Why not living? Death makes it seem kind of silly.

[Simon Anders]

That went over my head or between my knees. Can you rephrase it?

[Simon Anders]

Let's talk about all the rituals around the flag....

[StrangerInAStrangeLa]

Q....is there a religious ritual that isn't bizarre?

Is there a bizarre ritual that isn't religious?
1111

[Simon Anders]

Is there a bizarre ritual that isn't religious?
see my posts.

The Rose Bowl.

A Boxing Prize Fight.

Fraternity Rituals.

The Electoral College.

and so on.

[StrangerInAStrangeLa]

Those aren't religious???
1111

[Simon Anders]

Nope.
You can participate in the Rose Bowl and be an atheist, the others should be obviously secular. The Rose Bowl being almost Christian, but not quite.

Some more:
Professional Wrestling
A Beauty Contest
A Heavy Metal Concert
The Oscars
British Trials (the white wigs, the stylized speech, etc.)
Grand ole Oprey
An Elvis Impersonator Contest - (I admit this is moving very close to a religious ritual, but only for some participants)
Teenage Dating
A Used Car Sale
The list can go on and on.....

[Simon Anders]

More:

Thanksgiving day parades - complete with floats and giant balloons, some of cartoon figures.
Bachelor's Parties
Any everyday trip to a strip club - men put dollar bills in womens' g-strings while these latter dance with poles.
How about the lap dance: men cannot 'touch' the woman - or big men will run out and throw the men out of the 'establishment' for breaking the rules - while the woman rubs here barely clothed lower torso on the man's in-pants penis. Not a religious ritual, though there used to be religious rituals with sex, none were more bizarre.
Birthday parties - cake, candles in the cake, one makes a wish and blows out the candles, conical hats, pseudo whistles the unroll a paper tongue, wrapped presents, the games, etc.
The Mummer's Parade (well, parades in general)
July 4th in the US
Union Picketing
Auctions

Theaters have a whole culture of rituals

Secular rituals are strange and ubiquitous

[(Q)]

Is there a bizarre ritual that isn't religious?
1111

While I would tend to agree with you, crossing ones chest or shoving your ass in the air when praying are pretty weird, but don't even register on the bizarro scale compared to tossing babies from rooftops.

I would wonder what the first person would say who makes a mistake and tosses a baby on the pavement?

"It was Gods will this baby should die."

[Simon Anders]

Cute Simon, but is there some point to your silliness? Or, is that the point?

The point is obvious and was stated. Secular rituals are bizzare also.

I'll put professional wresting up against any religious ritual for bizarreness.

And given Stranger's question

Is there a bizarre ritual that isn't religious?

it seems obvious to me that at least some intelligent people are confused on this issue.

[Mr. Hamtastic]

Q-obsessively attacking that which one does not believe would be to do so religiously. Religious is just a word, and is easily manipulated. I ask you, would you have posted this particular occurence had it been a new extreme sporting event, and they were going for distance? :shrug:

[Simon Anders]

We haven't even gotten into Japanese television shows or Star Trek conventions yet....

I am starting to think secular rituals take the cake.

[Mr. Hamtastic]

Simon-you haven't gone into any of the worldwide secular "manhood" rituals.

[Mr. Hamtastic]

How about the flattening of women's breasts to encourage them to stay in school? I've seen that one on TV.

[S.A.M.]

How about marriage? Ever seen a ritual as ridiculous as the marriage rituals?

[Simon Anders]

Simon-you haven't gone into any of the worldwide secular "manhood" rituals.
My father did not take me to a brothel when I was 14 if that's what you mean.
A friend's father took me to my first baseball game and I did have the appropriate beverages and 'food'. I did bring a mitt.
I was once at a 'normal' bachelor party. I walked out. Not from some high moral stance, though I did have some feelings around that. I found the idea of that naked woman dancing there so embarrassing and scary. I could not for the life of me understand how I was to relate to this human. The actions of my peers seemed unobtainable.
Fortunately no one has tried to pierce my manhood or paint it.
I have gone out and gotten drunk with the guys.
I have never seen a Nascar race.
I have never shot a deer with an older male relative.

Let me know if I am getting warm.

[Simon Anders]

How about marriage? Ever seen a ritual as ridiculous as the marriage rituals?But ultimately neutral, at least the ones I have seen. Divorce rituals on the other hand.....
Secular and religious society at its worst. Well, no, no even close. But bad.

[Mr. Hamtastic]

Simon-the boy scouts scare the hell out of me.
Actually I was referring to the stuff I don't have names for, just memories from Nat Geo. Like the boy gets the living shit beaten out of him to be considered a man. 300 mentioned the Spartan ritual of sending a boy out to hunt an animal with no supplies and a spear or something.

SAM-Anything meant to combine two people into one is going to be bizarre. Even if they just signed a contract, it would be a little weird.

[S.A.M.]

Simon-the boy scouts scare the hell out of me.
Actually I was referring to the stuff I don't have names for, just memories from Nat Geo. Like the boy gets the living shit beaten out of him to be considered a man. 300 mentioned the Spartan ritual of sending a boy out to hunt an animal with no supplies and a spear or something.


Rites of Passage.

[(Q)]

The point is obvious and was stated. Secular rituals are bizzare also.

I'll put professional wresting up against any religious ritual for bizarreness.

I'm sure, Simon, you would agree that tossing babies from rooftops to please god does not equate with making money in the entertainment industry.

While I don't participate in following professional wrestling, I'm certainly not worried for the injuries they may sustain in the ring, while I would be very concerned for the safety of those babies, and the utter stupidity of their parents placing thier newborn infants in life and death situations, PURPOSELY, for the pleasure of a god.

Again, I was looking for you to draw some relevant comparisons.

[(Q)]

Q-obsessively attacking that which one does not believe would be to do so religiously.

What is there to "believe" when parents toss newborns from rooftops, Ham?

Religious is just a word, and is easily manipulated.

Fyi, it means the belief in the supernatural, and it's interplay in human destinies.

I ask you, would you have posted this particular occurence had it been a new extreme sporting event, and they were going for distance? :shrug:

If by "going for distance" you meant tossing newborns from rooftops to please a god, then yes.

[Simon Anders]

I'm sure, Simon, you would agree that tossing babies from rooftops to please god does not equate with making money in the entertainment industry.

While I don't participate in following professional wrestling, I'm certainly not worried for the injuries they may sustain in the ring, while I would be very concerned for the safety of those babies, and the utter stupidity of their parents placing thier newborn infants in life and death situations, PURPOSELY, for the pleasure of a god.
I believe the adjective you used was bizarre, was it not?
If you had titled the thread 'rituals dangerous to babies' I would not have responded the way I did.
Sure, I dislike that ritual.

If you want some consensus on that specific ritual I suggest you change the emphasis of the OP and title.

Again, I was looking for you to draw some relevant comparisons.
If this was your intention, again, the title and OP, seem to indicate other intentions. It seemed to be a call for a list of bizarre religious rituals, not for comparisons. I added to the topic by including secular rituals that I consider bizarre.

[Mr. Hamtastic]

Simon-Q would like to have someone talk about how similar tossing babies from a rooftop is to kneeling on a prayer rug and facing a place in prayer, or drinking grape juice and cut up slices of white bread for communion. It's much easier to lump all Spiritual rituals together and label it bizarre. I think eating brains is bizarre, but people in the south pacific do it to honor the dead. I wouldn't go tossing my children from a rooftop to show my conviction of faith, but I wouldn't move to another country for my beliefs, either.(Jonestown) There are extremes of all sorts for all religions, including Atheism. Stalin pragmatically killing millions was an Atheistic act, but somehow this seems to be winked at. :shrug:

[Mr. Hamtastic]

Christianity? Well, Mormons are quick to say they are christians, they are into polygamy. Baptists are so named because they think you aren't "fully saved" until you have been immersed in water. Some believe that after taking communion, it turns into Jesus real body and blood, thus a form of cannibalism. Those are the ones I'm pretty familiar with. Oh! There are those who say Christianity espouses vampirism. One group picked one OT commandment and think they are going to get a bigger kewpie doll in heaven because they go to church on Saturday. I think all of these things are somewhat bizarre, myself. That's not even considering Jim Jones or David Koresh.

[S.A.M.]

So tell us about bizarre Jewish rituals. What do you think of the rabbi sucking the dicks of infant boys after circumcision?

[(Q)]

So tell us about bizarre Jewish rituals. What do you think of the rabbi sucking the dicks of infant boys after circumcision?

Got a link?

[S.A.M.]

What? You're questioning it? Why?

http://www.sexuallymutilatedchild.org/mohel-1a.jpg



Shabbath 19:2
They may perform on the Sabbath all things that are needful for circumcision: excision, tearing, sucking [the wound], and putting thereon a bandage and cumin. If this had not been pounded up on the eve of the Sabbath a man may chew it with his teeth and then apply it.

The Mishnah
Translated by Herbert Danby
Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1933. pp. 116-117.

http://www.sexuallymutilatedchild.org/mohel.htm

[Orleander]

I always thought a bris (circumcision ceremony) was a weird one. Especially the ones where the Rabbi sucks the blood off.

[SkinWalker]

mod note - off topic posts deleted (most of them); trolling posts deleted & warnings sent as appropriate.

The title of this thread involves religious rituals and not secular (by this definition I do not mean "atheist") rituals. However, I didn't delete the off-topic posts that included secular rituals since these serve a purpose of comparing and contrasting as well as showing that ritual is something that is a human characteristic rather than a singularly religious one.

One participant in the thread mentioned that "religious" is a broad term that can be manipulated in many ways, but I would argue that some forms are meant to be tropes. To define religion in a way that doesn't include a belief in the supernatural and the perceived necessity to appease of one or more supernatural deities renders the utility of the word useless for the context of this subforum.

Therefore, further off-topic discussion about secular (non-religious) rituals should be done in a way to compare and contrast them with actual religious rituals.

By a trope, I mean a figure of speech that isn't to be taken literal, i.e. "she eats yogurt for breakfast" has a somewhat different meaning that the inclusion of a trope, "she religiously eats yogurt for breakfast."