Every significant and special occasion in our lives deserves to be commemorated and celebrated.
Western culture has developed Rites of Passage for significant moments in people’s lives such as birth, marriage, death and graduation. There are also many other meaningful signposts and seasons in our life that need tributes. Rituals around ‘the coming of age’, ‘the grief of Divorce’, menopause, retirement, return from active duty and renewing of vows.
What are Rituals?
“ We do spiritual ceremonies as human beings in order to create a safe resting place for our most complicated feelings of joy or trauma, so that we don’t have to haul those feelings around with us forever, weighing us down.
We all need such places of ritual safekeeping. And I do believe that if your culture or tradition doesn’t have the specific ritual you are craving, then you are absolutely permitted to make up a ceremony of your own devising, fixing your own broken-down emotional systems with all the do-it-yourself resourcefulness of a generous plumber/poet.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
Rituals and Ceremonies play a significant role in all cultures and help to define a society. They are deeply important to human beings. Some say that ritual is what makes us human.
“Indeed, to truly be human, we must be connected to supportive, cooperative communities. Ritual is the mechanism by which we have always created those communities” (M. Rossano).
“People have traditionally turned to ritual to help them frame and acknowledge and ultimately even find joy in just such a paradox of being human” (Michael Pollen ).
Done well, ritual and ceremony provide a sense of
“before and after”
and people come away knowing their lives have been
positively touched by the experience
Gail Peekeekoot
As a Celebrant it is a great joy and honour to participate and conduct Ceremonies and Rituals to mark these precious and significant moments.
As a writer I work collaboratively to make your event completely personal.
I feel passionately about the need for ritual and ceremony in our lives and I take great enjoyment from writing and crafting moments of wonder and precious memories for people that last for ever.
Lisa Hunt-Wotton
