A time to gather : how ritual created the world--and how it can save us / Bruce Feiler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Feiler, Bruce, 1964- Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rites and ceremonies.

Manners and customs.

customs (social concepts).

Feiler, Bruce, 1964---Travel.

Feiler, Bruce.

Genre:

Travel writing.

Physical Description:

352 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Other Title:

How ritual created the world--and how it can save us

Place of Publication:

New York : Penguin Press, 2026.

Summary:

"It's easy to be overwhelmed by the sharp decline in the types of life rituals that have been the tentpoles of family and community life since time immemorial. Birth rituals have plummeted, as have comings-of-age. Fewer than half of Americans are married today; only one in three is buried. "It took us ten thousand years to establish cultural norms around how we mark collective life transitions," writes Bruce Feiler. "It took us fifty years to dismantle them." We have clearly entered what Feiler calls a "celebration recession." Can this threat to society be reversed? Feiler wanted to find out. As he did with his groundbreaking series Walking the Bible, Feiler went on a round-the-world ritual road trip, attending--and participating in--life rituals in sixteen countries on six continents. These rarely seen spectacles include an adolescent tooth filing in Bali, a mass baptism in the Vatican, and a tribal bride price negotiation in South Africa. He witnessed six weddings in a day in Las Vegas and ten funerals in a week in Ireland. As he did with Life Is in the Transitions, Feiler also gathered the stories of a hundred ritual designers in twenty-six countries, including a Pentecostal priest in Nigeria who started a fertility circle, the creator of the Purple Pundit Project in New Jersey who leads LGBTQ+ Hindu weddings, and the founder of an app in Canada that helps "create your own rites of passage." What Feiler emerged with is a literary achievement, at once a great adventure story in the tradition of Sebastian Junger and Cheryl Strayed; a richly reported sociological portrait in the vein of Robert Putnam and Barbara Ehrenreich; and a conversation-shaping piece of social commentary in the mode of David Brooks and Jonathan Haidt. Far from a ritual recession, we are in the midst of a ritual renaissance, one that our outdated radar screens have failed to pick up. Fed up with top-down life rituals, everyday people are reimagining rituals at a pace unseen in human history. From boomers to Gen Z and boosted by social media, this new movement is reviving life rituals for a new century and building thriving communities in the process. From a master storyteller on the trail of an urgent, untold story, what Feiler has created is a hopeful field guide to modern ritual; a tool kit for infusing collective meaning into our lives; and, perhaps, a framework for repairing our homesick world"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction : The ritual renaissance : how ritual created the world, and how it can save us

Welcome with joy : circling St. Peter's Square

The lobola connection : what happens under the mango tree

The Taylor Swift divorce party : how to create a ritual, volume 1

Skin in the game : coming of age in Bali

House of correction : the grieving & weaving circle of Green-Wood Cemetery

Jumping the broom : how to create a ritual, volume 2

The four somethings : all your dreams fulfilled

Celebration trail : seeing the forest through the forest bathing

Bless the broken road : how to create a ritual, volume 3

A time to hold : RIP.ie, where Irish eyes go to cry

The placenta chronicles : how to tell the story of a birth

The garden of lost children : how to create a ritual, volume 4

A moment of hope : the missing ritual

Conclusion : A ritual state of mind : how to turn any gathering into a life celebration.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [331]-336) and index.

Other Format:

Online version Feiler, Bruce Time to gather

ISBN:

9780593656433

0593656431

OCLC:

1534342719

Publisher Number:

90104611925