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What is a Civil Celebrant?
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The following information
comes from the website of the Celebrant USA Foundation & Institute.
http://www.celebrantusa.org/faq.html
Civil Celebrants are people in your community who are professionally trained to perform a variety of ceremonies to mark milestones in your loved one's life, including: weddings, renewal of vows, commitments, baby welcoming, namings and adoptions, survivor tributes, coming of age, divorce, retirements, graduations, birthdays, anniversaries, memorials, end of life celebrations, civic and corporate ceremonies. The Civil Celebrant's mission is to create a ceremony that reflects your needs, beliefs, cultural background, values and tastes.
"I am a ritual maker and celebrant who designs, organizes and celebrates contemporary rites of passage."- Mary Hancock, Celebrant New Zealand
How do Civil Celebrants
differ from other officiants, such as clergy or judges or registrars?
In a Civil Celebrant Ceremony, you are empowered. Nothing is imposed on you.
Instead, in a collaborative process, the Celebrant will guide you in choosing
rituals, readings, symbols and music to fulfil your ideals. Your Civil Celebrant
will:
What do Celebrants
believe?
The beliefs of the Celebrant are immaterial in this process. Celebrants believe
that appropriate ceremonies are an important way of bringing happiness and
mental balance to individuals, and connection and beauty within society. They
believe in people. They believe in adding to the sum total of human happiness
wherever they can assist in doing so. Celebrants are trained to focus on the
values and priorities of the client/s. The client ceremony is a total reflection and an
extension of the honourees at the ceremony.
Who would use the
services of a Celebrant?
The answer is anyone and everyone! Whether you are secular, religious,
spiritual, nondenominational, part of an interfaith or multicultural family, or
if you simply wish to express yourself in a manner of your own choosing, a
Celebrant can help you create a ceremony that respects all that is meaningful to
you.
Why use ceremony to mark
life's milestones?
Life is a journey for us all. It is a growing process. We all go through many
physical stages in our lives: infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and
maturity. We go through personal, sentimental and emotional stages as well: we
might find a partner, build a career or have children; we live through illnesses
and the loss of family and friends. There is a deep human need to find some sort
of stability in this ever-changing state. Since ancient times, humans have
created ceremony to mark these rites of passages and create a space and place to
express our humanness in all its simple glory.
Below are quotes about the importance of ceremony and ritual from respected authorities in the field:
"Ceremony assists people to adjust to change (a marriage ceremony does this for families), to recognize achievement (a classic example is a graduation ceremony), to relate, to express love, and/or to establish a relationship. Ceremonies are the human way we have to signpost a deal such as a business merger, to trigger off a healthy grief process (such as in divorce or funeral ceremonies), to welcome another human being into the family. So Ceremonies have these excellent effects - they can be used further to announce intentions, to express loyalty and to reinforce a sense of identity." - Dally Messenger III, President of the International Federation of Civil Celebrants.
"We need rituals at many times, whether for healing or transformation, celebration or mourning. To learn to create our own is to empower ourselves, and this can enrich our lives immeasurably." - Juliet Batten, 'Power from Within'
"A culture that forgets its rites of passage eventually loses its capacity to celebrate joy and unity." - Michael Meade
"The tribal ceremonies of birth, initiation, marriage, burial, installation, and so forth, serve to translate the individual's life-crises and life-deeds into classic, impersonal forms. The whole society becomes visible to itself as an imperishable living unit. Generations of individuals pass, like anonymous cells from a living body, but the sustaining, timeless form remains. By an enlargement of vision to embrace this super-individual, each discovers himself enhanced, enriched, supported and magnified." - Joseph Campbell
What are 'Rites of
Passage'?
The French anthropologist and folklorist Arnold van Gennep, best known for his
studies of the rites of passage of various cultures, and whose major work was
"Rites of Passage" (1909), is credited with coining the phrase, rites
of passage. Van Gennep emphasized the structural analogies among various rites
by demonstrating that all are characterized by three phases: separation,
transition and reincorporation. Van Gennep saw the rites as means by which
individuals are eased, without social disruption, through the difficulties of
transition from one social role to another. The person or (persons) on whom the
rites centre is first symbolically severed from his old status, then undergoes
adjustment to the new status during the period of transition, and is finally
reincorporated in society in his new social status. Many of the important and
common rites of passage are connected with the biological stages of life: birth,
puberty, maturity, marriage, reproduction, and death; other rites celebrate
changes that are wholly cultural. These rites of passage serve to bridge
critical stages in the life process and to help the individual confront certain
uncontrollable aspects of the world he inhabits. By providing a predictable,
communal context for individual experience, rites of passage act to alleviate
the inevitable anxiety that accompanies change.
What does symbolism mean
to ourselves, to our inner life, to our sense of identity?
"Words in ceremonies are symbols, which, by our own decision, mould us into
what we are. Symbols of all kinds evoke very deep emotions in human beings.
Symbols in ceremony can evoke powerful and deep emotions, tapping the
subconscious, affecting behaviours, directing life styles, and daily decisions."
Ann Witheford, politician & constitutional reformer.
Muktananda Levy
oMKAR tRADITIONS
mukta@omkartraditions.com Telephone: 07 5533 5760
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