Definitions, concepts & meaning of Ritual
Although this is not always true, either, for example means as ritual veneration and prayer through the use of candles or failing of Holy cards of the God of any religion, but ritual can also be an activity or daily action that by their repetition in time becomes a sort of irreducible usual for a person. For example, if I every day I get up at 7:30 in the morning and took a cup of coffee with milk accompanied always three toasts with sweet, that also is understood as a ritual: the repetition of the same action and under the same circumstances at the time. It is worth noting that some rituals can become true pathological habits when their systematic repetition can not be abandoned by a person without causing damage to their way of life or their quality of life. In children with autism, for example, the need for a systematic absolute in your organization makes violations of that scheme to unleash true crisis.
Then, this indicates that the rituals have two reasons being, on the one hand, strictly religious which is generated by any need, as be the fertility or growth of crops, in the case of the animist cultures... and, on the other hand, the custom which is that which corresponds to the last case that I mentioned in the previous paragraph.
In primitive societies, rituals had a reason for being special, as the of, for example, validate the entry of a person into adulthood. The completion of the so-called "Rite of initiation of the serpent", was very common in some African cultures, in which of course there was one of these reptiles in scene, as well as people summoning him and the boy (who was about to cease to be). In this particular case, was used as an allegory to a being like the snake by the change of the skin that occurs in it as a symbol of mutation to want to mean almost the same thing: growth, in the case of this African child leaving to go to become an adult. Applies the same concept to other major changes of life, such as wedding, maternity and even the burial of the dead. To varying degrees, the great religions keep their rituals, in order to facilitate its implementation by the faithful who speak different languages around the world.
Strictly speaking, the loss of religious values in many societies has resulted in the emergence of behaviours which, from the scientific point of view, continue to be ritual, adapted and modified for a better 'acceptance' in a mundane society. The celebrations are a classic example to celebrate fifteen years of adolescent girls, on the occasion of which carry out large parties with certain forms and habits. In addition, some scholars of human behavior believe that the birth of sports has been an adaptation of the old habits of primitive man hunting, surrounded by unwavering rituals that have been modified to give rise to rules of each of the team sports that we know today.
Therefore, the rituals are part of everyday life, in versions adapted to the modern times of large cities, in each of our individual and collective actions.