Australian Rituals

Christmas Rituals

During the christmas holidays families celebrate with relays in swimming pools, water gun fights, or backyard cricket. Father Christmas/Santa ClausChristmas Holiday rituals is usually pictured in a swimming costume and a cool drink is left out for him by children at night. School is let out a week prior to Christmas for summer break and resumes after Australia Day on January 26. Homes are not decorated as heavily as in some cultures but there are two traditional native plants used for the occasion: The NSW Christmas bush and Christmas bells. Meals include hot turkey, Christmas pudding, seafood, cold turkey and ham for salads, Panforte and panettone (Christmas cake), mince pies, ice cream 

Rituals in Sport

Australia has a rich sporting culture . They are renowned world wide for their cricket.Rituals in sports. In cricket , in the first session of each test, it is a ritual for the Australian players to wear their baggy green caps; this is a gesture of solidarity and a salute of their heritage. At the end of a victorious series, players gather (in the middle of the field) to sing their theme song Underneath the Southern Cross. This rituals are important for their sports because are an important ingredient in developing the public image of a sport, and providing the participants at all the various levels with a common bond. For cricket it is very important that many of the great traditions of the game are maintained. It provides a sense of order, and when difficult times are encountered by any sport there is a tangible support element for the players and the game itself to look up to.

Funeral Ceremonies

Another important time for ceremonies is on the death of a Funeral Rituals performed person, when people often paint by Aborigines themselves white, cut their own bodies to show their remorse for the loss of their loved one, and conduct a series of rituals, songs and dances to ensure the person’s spirit leaves the area and returns to its birth place, from where it can later be reborn. Burial practices vary throughout Australia, people being buried in parts of southern and central Australia, but having quite a different burial in the north. Across much of northern Australia, a person’s burial has two stages, each accompanied by ritual and ceremony.

St. Patricks Day

St Patrick's Day is a popular tradition. Even though it may be in tribute to a patron saint of a foreign country, it involves a lot of drinking hence its appeal. A home grown saint is yet to eventuate. A Ned Kelly Day would be a possibility. As a result of Our Ned's Last Stand, police corruption was cleaned up, and a century of painters, novelists, musicians and poets gained a muse of inspiration. The only problem with a Ned Kelly day would be that having a day to celebrate an executed cop killer would be as ridiculous as having a national day to celebrate criminals.