Ceremonial in daily life would seem to have ebbed over decades, as far as I can see. One example that has been on my mind recently is the use of national anthems.
When I was growing up, the Irish national anthem was played at the end of a day's broadcasting on RTE, the state television channel. This happened at least into the nineteen-eighties and perhaps as late as the nineteen-nineties. It was played over footage of the sun setting on a scenic landscape. Back then, I rather disliked the segment, because sunsets always make me sad. But I miss it now.
And this despite the fact that I don't much like the national anthem from an aesthetic point of view. The lyrics are militaristic bombast, which is rather typical for anthems. But they're not even rousing bombast, like the American National Anthem. They are rather dreary bombast. I don't like the tune, either.
But that's not the point. It's been our national anthem since the nineteen-twenties, and it's part of our history now.
In truth, although I'm a nationalist, my sadness at the neglect of the national anthem hasn't really got anything to do with nationalism. I miss it for the element of ceremony that it added to daily life. Not only was it played at the end of programming on TV and radio, but it was frequently played at the end of musical "sessions" in pubs. Now this custom seems to have dried up completely, and its use seems more or less limited to big sporting occasions.
I've thought about leading a campaign for the restoration of the anthem on RTE. I live twenty minutes away from the studios, so I could easily do that while respecting the current Covid travel restrictions. I could become the familiar headbanger with the placard, a status I have often aspired towards for its own sake.
I remember in secondary school, we would stand up and say a prayer before each class. Not with every teacher, though-- we had one history teacher who didn't engage in this practice. Once, when a girl automatically stood up and started saying the prayer by herself, the teacher said:"That's why I don't say a prayer for class"; presumably meaning that she thought it was simply mechanical repetition and therefore valueless. I was impressed by this reasoning at the time, but I'm less repressed now. Better mechanical repetition than nothing.
We seem increasingly to be left with nothing, and that gives me a great sense of loss. A little bit of standing on ceremony would surely be good for us all.
Yes — and apart from anything else, custom and ceremony often give us the right words for particular occasions, and lift the pressure to come up with something original every time we want to lend dignity to a particular moment, to step outside our lives, to mark and measure our days.
ReplyDeleteI remember in the Lord of the Rings there is a little exchange as the hobbits sit down to eat with the Rohirrim horsemen: the Rohirrim say an equivalent of grace, and then ask if the hobbits do this. They are stumped for a moment, and then remember they do have an equivalent, rather different, but serving the same purpose. And there is (as I imagine Tolkien intended) the sense of a bond forged across peoples. It is the orcs and the hosts of Mordor who are without custom or ceremony.
I imagine the hobbits don't delay too long about the eating! Funny, I read the book at Christmas and I can only vaguely remember that passage...
DeleteAnd I agree, ritual is a great ally when spontaneity is awkward.
When a particular person is around me I have to stand and listen to the Latvian anthem- midday our zone but 6am in Latvia, obviously the opening time of their government station watched on his phone. I notice the programmes immediately after are cultural also; seems to airways be something in a rural setting, about handmade instruments once, or national cooking...etc
ReplyDeleteIs it a caustic quip if I ask how many years after independence this lasts before a country wearies if it?
Even self-contained America seems to give a strange over-attention to the British monarchy for a nation whose system and culture has no place for ceremonial heads-of-state. And not just recently either- TIME's first female person-of-the-year was Wallis Simpson- by American eyes nobody played a greater role in 1936 than a woman who dented the English royals. And it turned out to be just a dent too. The third woman to receive the gong was Elizabeth herself in her coronation year.
Happy protesting
I take the American's fascination with the monarchy as evidence of my case here! As for that Latvan, I am very heartened to hear it, and hope they never get tired of their post-independence ceremonial!
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