In ancient Greece, the central ritual act was animal sacrifice, particularly of oxen, goats, and sheep. Sacrifices took place within the sanctuary, usually at an altar in front of the temple, with the assembled participants consuming the entrails and meat of the victim. The temple was surrounded by two courtyards with chambers, gates, and a public square. There were two Temples on the same spot: the first Temple, built by King Solomon, and the synagogue, which practiced rituals such as the blowing of the shofar and waving of the lulav during Sukkot.
The Temple in Jerusalem operated according to God’s instructions in the first five books of the Jewish Bible. Rituals of circumcision, the observance of Sabbath, and bathing for purification were common practices outside the Temple that shaped the Jewish identity. Each temple had its own rituals and festivals, but common to all was the daily ritual where the divine statue was “woken up” and fed.
Temple rituals consisted primarily of pouring water libations and burning incense before the shrines of the gods. Hymns were sung during the twelve hours of worship. Temple personnel attended to worship and organized rituals and ceremonies, with their posts and duties varied widely. People would come to the temples to offer prayers and sacrifices to the gods, seek guidance and protection. Inside the temples, priests made sacred promises, such as covenanting to live the Law of Consecration.
In ancient Egypt, every day, specially designated persons performed a ritual focused on making offerings of food, drink, clothing, and ointment.
📹 We Studied the Temple in the Bible (Here’s What We Found)
In this video, we explore how Israel’s temple in the Bible is described as the place where God’s space and humanity’s space are …
Whose duties were the performance of rituals and care of the temples?
Temples in ancient Egypt were believed to be residences for deities, who temporarily manifested in cult statues. These temples were also the stage for daily rituals, performed by priests and ideally by the pharaoh. These rituals included offering food and beverages, as well as burning incense for purifying effects. The inner rooms were reserved for ritualists, while during religious festivals, cult statues could be carried out onto the cult terrace.
The Temple of Dendur was primarily dedicated to the goddess Isis of Philae, who had her principal temple on Philae. The temple features depictions of Isis’s husband, Osiris, and their son, Horus, who appears as both Harpocrates (“Horus the Child”) and Harendotes (“Horus Who Protects His Father”).
Why did Ancient Egyptians make daily offerings?
Ancient Egyptian rituals served as a mechanism to maintain the universe’s fabric and process. People made offerings of food, drink, clothing, and ointment to divine forces, with daily offerings to the gods being the most essential. These images were not divine forces but the ‘double’ that allowed them to be visualized for humans. The system operated with both three-dimensional and two-dimensional images. In dynastic times, Egyptians performed rituals in dedicated spaces for three categories of divine beings: gods, goddesses, the reigning king, and the blessed dead.
How does ritual work?
Ritual is a convenient app and web platform that allows users to place pickup orders at nearby restaurants and cafes, allowing them to pre-order and pay ahead of time. This convenience eliminates the need for loose change, paper receipts, or fumbling with wallets. Ritual also offers exclusive perks and offers, allowing users to try new restaurants and save money. Users can also find delicious items within their budget and collect points for Ritual Reward credits.
What religion was Egypt before Islam?
Cairo is predominantly Muslim, with around 10% of the population being Christians, mostly from the Coptic Orthodox Church. The Jewish population in Cairo is around 200, with most emigrating to Israel or the US in the last fifty years. Pope Shenouda II leads a mass service at the Coptic Church’s mosques, which range from large to small. Muslims are required to pray five times daily, with the noon prayer on Friday being the holy day in Islam. As a result, businesses, schools, and offices close on Fridays.
What are temple rituals?
The endowment ceremony in Mormonism is a ritual reenactment of creation, Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, mortal experience, and the return to God’s presence. Participants make covenants in the name of Jesus Christ at each stage. Temple rituals also include an eternal marriage ceremony called a sealing and baptism by proxy for ancestors who died without joining the true church. Critics argue that some temple rites were adapted from Freemasonry, with symbols like the all-seeing eye, fraternal handshake, and compass and square. However, Latter-day Saints view their temple ordinances as fundamentally different from Masonic and other rituals, viewing similarities as remnants from an ancient original.
Who performed rituals?
In the Rig Vedic society, the Brahmins were a class of individuals who performed various rituals as priests.
How often were rituals performed in an Egyptian temple?
Temples had their own rituals and festivals, but the daily ritual of awakening, feeding, and dressing the divine statue was common. The high priest, acting on behalf of the Pharaoh, opened the shrine, greeted the statue with bowing and hymns, lit incense, and dressed the statue in fine textiles and jewelry. After receiving food offerings, the statue was returned to its shrine, and the priest swept away any footprints. The leftover offerings were divided among the priests as part of their wages.
What was the role of ritual celebrations?
Rituals and festive events are significant aspects of a community’s worldview and history, often held at special times and places. Some events, like initiation rites and burial ceremonies, may be restricted to certain members of the community. However, some events are open to all, such as carnivals and events marking the New Year, beginning of Spring, and end of the harvest. Social practices, which are familiar to all members of the community, shape everyday life and reinforce a sense of identity and continuity with the past.
The 2003 Convention prioritizes distinctive social practices that are relevant to a community and help reinforce a sense of identity. Examples of these practices include informal greeting ceremonies and formal gifts, which can range from casual events to formal arrangements with significant political, economic, or social meanings.
What was the daily offering ritual in ancient Egyptian temples?
The morning offering ceremony was a common temple ritual in ancient Egypt, where a high-ranking priest or pharaoh would wash, anoint, and dress a god’s statue before presenting it with offerings. The offerings were then distributed among the priests. Individual Egyptians also prayed to gods and gave them private offerings, although evidence of this was sparse before the New Kingdom. Personal piety became more prominent in the late New Kingdom, when it was believed that gods intervened directly in individual lives, punishing wrongdoers and saving the pious from disaster.
Kemetism, the revival and modern-day following of ancient Egyptian religion, worships and performs offerings to a few gods but recognizes the existence of every god. Altars and offerings are often constructed using statues or two-dimensional representations of deities, along with candles, votive offerings, prayer beads, incense burners, and food offerings. Most Kemetic offerings try to keep to tradition, offering the same or similar items as ancient Egyptians would have offered.
What happens in a ritual?
Rituals in past and present societies involve various actions such as gestures, words, recitation of texts, music, dances, processions, object manipulation, dress use, and consumption of food, drink, or drugs. Anthropologist Catherine Bell identifies rituals as formalism, traditionalism, invariance, rule-governance, sacral symbolism, and performance. Rituals use a restricted code, which anthropologists call a “restricted code” in contrast to an open “elaborated code”.
Maurice Bloch argues that ritual leaders’ speech becomes more style than content, causing acceptance, compliance, or forbearance in response to challenges. This form of communication makes rebellion impossible and revolution the only feasible alternative. Rituals tend to support traditional forms of social hierarchy and authority, maintaining the assumptions on which authority is based from challenge.
What are the 4 types of rituals?
Gluckman distinguishes four kinds of ritual, with rite of passage being a typical constitutive ritual. However, the terms “rite of passage” and “ritual” face difficulties as analytic concepts, making it difficult to differentiate between common behavior, rite of passage, and ritual in a strict sense. Van Gennep’s original expressions of the basic features of the rite of passage are vague, and the core problem is what people want to change through ritual.
Travel away from home but not for subsistence is a human behavior that has been widespread in all societies since ancient times. It wasn’t until the late twentieth century that tourism became a general necessity of life, promoting the development of related industries around the world. Determining the coordinates of tourism in cultural anthropology and establishing an analytic framework of tourism are frequently the focus of research for tourism anthropologists.
Graburn and Nash, two important researchers in the anthropology of tourism, have debated these basic questions. Graburn suggests that tourism is a “modern ritual” in contemporary society, where people are outside of their daily lives and in the travel life, which differs from routine work and life. He divides the life of the tourist into three stages: secular work-divine travel-secular work.
Nash later proposed that the purpose of travel, attitude toward travel, and the traveler’s behavior vary from person to person, and not all kinds of travel are similar to pilgrimage. While Graburn’s points of view can be useful for analyzing tourism, it’s important to be wary of being trapped into any one conceptual scheme, particularly one that may acquire a quality of truth in the minds of its proponents.
📹 Who were the Vestal Virgins, and what was their job? – Peta Greenfield
Travel back to Ancient Rome to find out what life was like for the Vestal Virgins, the priestesses who kept vigil over the flame of …
Rhea Silvia, was one of the most famous Vestal Virgins. She became a priestess of the goddess, when her evil uncle, Anulius, dethroned her father in the kingdom of Alba. The uncle couldn’t kill his niece, because it was a horrible thing to do in the gods’ eyes to kill your family. She got pregnant with the famous twins, Romulus and Remus. She said that the twins were the sons of the god of war, Mars. Because no one would dare kill the sons of a god, the babies were put in a basket and set on the Tiber river. They sailed until they reached present day Palatine hill where a branch caught the basket. A she wolf found the babies and nurtured them until a shepherd came and raised the babies to manhood. The boys won the throne back for their grandfather, then Romulus went on to found Rome (and kill Remus).
This is so one-sided!! How about the fact that in Rome’s patriarchal society, these women had one of the highest ranks, were well-respected and what is more, they were independant! After they retired they also recieved a pretty high pension and were free to marry. Leaving this out of the article is unprofessional really.
You make them sound like victims only… They were a lot more than that. From wikipedia: The dignities accorded to the Vestals were significant. – in an era when religion was rich in pageantry, the presence of the College of Vestal Virgins was required in numerous public ceremonies and wherever they went, they were transported in a carpentum, a covered two-wheeled carriage, preceded by a lictor, and had the right-of-way; – at public games and performances they had a reserved place of honour; – unlike most Roman women, they were not subject to the patria potestas and so were free to own property, make a will, and vote; – they gave evidence without the customary oath, their word being trusted without question; – they were, on account of their incorruptible character, entrusted with important wills and state documents, like public treaties; – their person was sacrosanct: death was the penalty for injuring their person and they had escorts to protect them from assault; – they could free condemned prisoners and slaves by touching them – if a person who was sentenced to death saw a Vestal on his way to the execution, he was automatically pardoned. – they participated in throwing the ritual straw figures called Argei into the Tiber on May 15.
TED-ED, There is a problem with this article. It portrays the Vestal Virgins as powerless sacrificial lambs in a meaningless ritual when to the Romans, it was anything but. Vestals also had power, and this article fails to present all aspects of their life, good and bad. I expect a thorough portrayal of a given subject by you guys, but this article is not thorough. It is one sided and rejects the viewpoints of those living at the time.
There is so much in error about this article. In the nearly 1000 years that the Vestals served, there was only a handful who were condemned. More importantly, the Vestals were revered by the Roman public, were the only women not governed by a man, were the only Roman women who could own property in their own right, and make a will. They lived in near royal luxury paid for by the state and were they stored the wills and legacies of the elite, including the Emperor Augustus. The priestess Licinia, in fact, was accused of impiety (having an affair) with Crassis, which put both of them at risk. The famous orator Cicero was their lawyer and they were both acquitted. Presumably, the person who accused them was given their punishment as that was how things were done in those days. After 30 years they were free to marry, though most didn’t as they wanted to maintain the freedoms they had enjoyed as priestesses. This article plays on the most exploitative moments of a very long story.
There are several things wrong with this article. First the vestals did not live under threat of execution, seeing as only a few of them have been executed through the duration of the Roman Empire. Secondly During the period of the Imperial rule some of the vestals were chosen from plebeian backgrounds. thirdly you did not mention how important the vestals were to Rome religious system both in the public sphere and in the private one. fourthly you made it seem through the article that the vessels were miserable in their existence while in fact the word the most powerful women in Roman society who enjoyed many rights not available to other women such as the ability to possess property manage their own Affair without a guardian appear before a court of law and so on.
This article makes it look horrible and one sided, but the truth is that Vestal executions where nearly impossible to conceive and extremely rare! I can only remember two cases and those where more than 600 years apart, ancient Romans remembered those as a really traumatic bit of their own history… Not a good article. Very paternalistic
Umm… There are some imprecisions that I would like to put in evidence: First: they were in service at most for 30 years and not for at least 30 years! Secondly: if a condemned to death had encountered a Vestal Virgin on his steps to the gallows, he (or she) would have been pitied. Third: the Vestal Virgin didn’t have to keep the look down. Fourth: The flame symbolizes the force of Roman law. It rises humanity from the darkness and from the barbarity’s arrogance. Fifth: the Vestal Virgins were not destined for sacrifice. In fact, ROMANS ABHOR HUMAN SACRIFICES !!! Sixth: If the flame was extinguished due to ill-treatment, the guilty could be condemned to a harsh punishment for divine blasphemy. The condemnation of death was foreseen in the event of a rancor of the chastity vote, for instead of taking care of the Temple, the fire, and the care of the vestal house, the Vestal Virgin had so far been entertained … There would be more to say, in any case the article is inaccurate and too approximative… Who is really interested about this I suggest to read and translate from here (original source, in Italian): treccani.it/enciclopedia/vestale_%28Enciclopedia-Italiana%29/
“So long as the Blood of the Dragon runs strong in her rulers, the glory of the Empire shall extend in unbroken years. But should the dragonfires fail, and should no heir of our joined blood wear the Amulet of Kings, then shall the Empire descend into darkness” – Trials of St. Alessia (From The Elder Scrolls)
The 21st century may be crazy n all but I have a feeling that if I were born in ancient times I would’ve died really early due to my rebellious and curious character, I’m someone who started questioning the world, the people and many other things around me from a very young age (like 2-4) and I’m pretty sure that the men and societies of back wouldn’t have taken it lightly😅
This article makes it sound rather emphatically as if Vestals lived in constant fear that they would be put to death, yet in reality there were only a handful of such executions in the several centuries over which the Vestal flame burned. It also neglects to mention that they were the only women in Rome who were liberated from paternal authority (which allowed them to own and control their own property), they were entitled to the best theatre seats, had a bodyguard that ensured a clear path, and widowed men clamoured for the privilege of marrying them if they chose to leave Vesta’s service after completing their 30 years.
I just played Octopath Traveler, and the clerics story in that is perusal over the sacred flame and every 20 years one is picked to carry the original flame to temples of the flame to reignite the dwindling flame. I had no idea it was loosely based on these women. Very good role-playing game I recommend it! By the way great series
Vesta is the Greek Goddess Εστία/Estía/Hestia The Romans adopted the religion of the Ancient Greek and so, took the Greek Gods and renamed them! Zeus became Jupiter Hera became Juno Poseidon became Neptune Kronos became Saturn Ares became Mars Artemis became Diana Athena became Minerva Hestia became Vesta Aphrodite became Venus . . .etc……. Hestia was the Goddess or protecting the House In Ancient Greece of course she was pictured with marble statues at the temples. In the center of every house there was a fire! That fire was the symbol of Hestia, the symbol of family’s unit and protection from the outsides’ bad things!
There has to be a connection to Zoroastrianism considering their holy texts is also called Avesta and also that they don’t depict their God, much like how the Zoroastrians have no real statues or depiction of Ahura Mazda (Single God of Zoroastrianism). The Zoroastrians also don’t let their Holy fire go out.
Actually this practice is way more ancient than Rome itself. The legend says that Romulus (founder of Rome) and Remus’ mother was one of the priestesses of Vesta in the city of Alba Longa and she was inprisoned because she didn’t take care of the sacred fire while she was meeting her secret partner (said to be the god Mars) and she eventually got pregnant. The story is more complicated but that’s the point. I personally think that these rituals of Vesta are so ancient and deep that we can’t understand them fully with our modern ideals, but they are surely very significant and don’t deserve to be judged as I’ve seen in this comment section. Be respectful of my (and maybe your) ancestors please. Remember that all those ancient civilisations whose practices we are constantly judging, all of them lived in harmony and balance with nature much more than us, so maybe we are not the best people to judge them.
Always trying to defame Pagan cultures, but it’s nothing compared to Post Christian witch huntings practiced in Medieval Europe and still practiced even today by some converted Christian tribes! Anyway, taking things out of context and trying to bring current moral standards into picture while discussing something thousands of years ago is just distortion of judgement! This practice is reasonably fine if seen in perspective of those times, Fire going out wasn’t just fire going out for those people, it indicated danger to city, so suppose if a modern soldier leaks some secret which endangers the national security, what you think the punishment will be?
It was a terrible life, but it did have some advantages, like being able to have good seats at public functions. They were treated like royalty when they were out and about. If they survived to retirement at around 36 years old, they could marry. I wish this article were more balanced. Being a V.V. wasn’t all absolutely horrific.
To understand the harshness of the punishment you have to extract yourself from the modern, comfortable, safe world and be mentally located at times where people were subjected to all sorts of dangers, whether from nature (droughts, famines, plagues, etc.) of from enemies who threaten your very existence. Religion was way more ritualistic than in their modern developed countries’ counterexamples, and keeping a fire alive offered a psychological assurance among so many terrors. It wasn’t “just a flame” as much as the Supreme Court building is not “just another building”, it represented many other things on the mind of the common people. Death was extremely common beyond penalties as medicine was extremely primitive, so it wasn’t a particular rarity. Rome wasn’t an exception but merely just another nation where such “heresies” were met with execution; you can read the Old Testament to see other examples. Superstition reigned unabated and Romans were extremely bent onto believe omens. Also hatred, grudges and even political or internal divides existed as among any other group of humans so, possibly, the sacrificed vestal may have been framed by her own companions. So, she may have victim of her fellow women companions for who knows what reasons. Women were participant of the whole system, they weren’t subjected to something they didn’t believe themselves. Romans, as many other old cultures, had both male and female gods and they played a role as did every person in such realities.
You forgot the part about Vestals being allowed as many rights as men after retirement and were allowed to marry and own property. Also, only 10 Vestals were put to death in 1,000 years so it is dishonest to make it sound like this was common place. I’m sure more of them were honored at the position than feeling punished or forced. Why do we have to put a modern spin and judgment on everything? Silliness.
No. Lycinia – being a Roman noblewoman and not a current-year women’s studies major – despises the memory of the accursed Vestal who dishonored herself and endangered Rome with her weakness. And is, of course, immensely proud to be given such an important role in Roman society. She has no doubts whatsoever as to her predecessor’s guilt, since the matter has been investigated and a sentence has been proclaimed by the leaders of her religion – and she has no reason to doubt them. If anything, she probably views the punishment as too lenient for the crime of endangering the city and risking the gods’ displeasure upon the City, her familia, and all she loves.
Best to stick to one unseen god without partners,who does not ask you for sacrifice of human life,just to praise him with your limbs and ask only from him, and ask only him for forgiveness and help. That way no one is harmed or abused and you are not left in the hands of humans for your final judgment, but to god alone, it’s really reassuring. God gave you a mouth use it to ask him for things, if it’s good for you he will give it, if it’s not he will delay it but ultimately we are not abusing another human being for our beliefs.
There are very few cases of vestalins buried alive, less then 10 in ~ 500 years. It was so rare that we have comments on nearly every case. Even whipping nearly no existent, they were to clever for that. It was the highes honor a women in rome could get, normaly reserved for the oldest familys. They were well connected, and powerfull, even an Imperator would leave them alone.
how can you call it ‘something as simple as flame going out’. For you it might be simple, but for contemporaries it was an unparalleled event. It is as if Caesar came to our time and tried to enforce his point of view that killing a million of people in Gaul and enslaving another milion was simply a very good and positive thingy. Letting that flame go out was not a simple matter then and there.
Ngl in my opinion vestal is a reliable healing character with the ability to deal small amounts of damage and inflict stun when needed, I personally think the presence of their aoe and single heal are extremely good due to here medium speed which can get someone off and far away from deaths door quickly, or give multiple people a significant topup, at the end of the day although the occultist’s healing can be potentially enough to heal more than a hundred health bringing someone from nothing to full, I think that with how reliable vestal is outmatches him as the primary healer
Geez….That must’ve sucked…..Imagine what that would be like today: “Mother, Father, the wi-fi has been cut of because I failed to stare at the router and fan it all day. Also, my SO and I had an incredible night last Friday…” The Parents: Death by burring you under our shed with only a loaf of bread and water for a day.