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Rituals are one of the oldest ways human beings have made meaning, marked change, honored emotion, and connected with one another. We use rituals all the time, even when we do not call them rituals. We gather for graduations, weddings, funerals, holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and community celebrations. Rituals help us pause and say: This moment matters. Something is changing. Something is being honored. Something is ready to be released. Something new is ready to be wel

A ritual is more than a habit or routine. In ritual studies, it is often understood as a structured, symbolic, repeated, or intentional sequence of action that “sets apart” ordinary time and gives meaning to transition, emotion, memory, identity, and belonging. Classic ritual theory describes rites of passage as having three movements: separation, liminality/threshold, and reincorporation. A helpful frame for therapy, retreat work, grief, endings, identity shifts, and new beg