Music and Ritualls
I had been looking at several rituals from around the world but one stood out to me in particular. An interesting ritual that I found that is correlated to music is the Native Hawaiians before the were colonized and they were part of America. Song and dance were used as essential parts of religious expressions. Song and Dance were used in ceremonies such as marking the seasons of the year, death, coming of age, and healing from illness. Most of the songs were sacred and only were for that specific group in native Hawaii to hear. In 1830 the Hawaiian island had been taken over by a Christian and the missionaries on the island convinced the ruler of the island to ban the famous Hawaiian dance the hula. This was interesting to me because it was somewhat similar to the Native American rituals we were learning about in class and I think its interesting that a place thousands of miles away could have similar rituals and that the new people on there land would want to kick them off the land and take away there rituals. I discovered a new Ritual with music with the Hawaiians but doing this blog got me thinking about ritual and music in my own life and it made me think of the Catholic Church. I have been Catholic all my life and music is a big part. The catholics believe that sacred music is for the glory of God and the sanctification and edification of the faithful. During a catholic mass several songs will play and they will give you a pamphlet so you can follow along. The music will be sung by a person and then they will use organs to follow up the singer. An example of a song is the "Gregorian chant" and it is warmly recommend in the Catholic Church. It's not just mass where the Catholics use music they use them during baptism and during weddings in the Catholic Church. This was very interesting to talk about because I have grown up in the Catholic Church and didn't even think of the music in the church during mass as a ritual until I took this class.


I love how you tied this into what we are learning as well as using your own religion. I loved reading this.
ReplyDeleteHi Mike :) Your blog was great. I think it's important to know the effects of colonization on nations, like you found on Hawaii - cultural aspects of countries are always changing as time goes on, yet many times old tradition prevails through, which just shows how solid a community can be. It's great that you found how rituals progressed throughout time in Hawaii. I also love how you incorporated your religion, Catholicism, into your blog. I'm a cradle Catholic as well and have attended church all my life, so your point has made me think of how music in Catholicism is a ritual as well!
ReplyDelete