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As most of you know, a ritual is a ceremony consisting of a series of actions preformed according to a prescribed order.
There are many rituals from many different cultures and religions.
Rituals vary from the usual “happy birthday” to the more religious rituals like Shabbat and Baptism.
These two religious rituals are what I have chosen to study and present today.
To give you a bit of a background on these rituals ill first start with Shabbat.
Shabbat is a Jewish day of rest.
It is given in the first two chapters of the Book of Bereishit although the name of the day does not actually appear there,it is just rest translated into Hebrew.
Baptism has similarities to Tvilah, a Jewish purification ritual of immersing in water,which is required for, among other things, conversion to Judaism
but which differs in being repeatable, while baptism is to be performed only once.
John the Baptist, who is considered a forerunner to Christianity, used baptism as the central sacrament of his messianic movement.
Christians consider Jesus to have instituted the sacrament of baptism, though whether Jesus intended to institute a continuing, organized church is a matter of dispute
At the beginning of the baptismal service, the infant and his or her parents will be welcomed into the Church and be brought to the front.
The priest will ask the parents the infant's name and ask what they are asking from the Church.
They reply with the infant's full name and that they want baptism.
The priest traces the Sign Of The Cross over the infant's forehead and then pours the Holy Water over his or her head at the Font while saying
'I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit'
Then the two oils will be applied to the infant's forehead and the Godparents will be called to come up and take the Baptismal Vows.
After the oils are applied, they will walk to the Font and the priest again will pour water over the infant's head and then the shawl will be wrapped around to symbolize that we put on Christ in Baptism.
The Baptismal Candle is given to the parents.
Now, Shabbat normally runs from sundown on Friday night to Saturday night. Normally, The family comes home for a festive, leisurely dinner after the religious services.
Before the dinner, the head of the house has to recite Kiddush, which is a prayer over wine sanctifying Shabbat.
Afterwards, the usual prayer for eating bread is recited at the dinner table over two loaves of challah, which is sweet egg bread, shaped in a braid. The family then eats their meal.
Shabbat means a lot to the Jewish community as it is a part of their heritage. It is the major ritual preformed by most of the Jewish community.
Which is the same for baptism for the catholic community as it is a major part of joining the catholic religion and is preformed by most Catholics.
As most participants who undergo baptism are infants so baptism mostly reflects the parents beliefs which is that their child will be baptized into the catholic church
which is awfully different to Shabbat as baptism is only preformed once where Shabbat is preformed every week and is bestowed upon by the head of the house and is reflected through the ritual.