Religious Traditions
Religious Tradition Religion comes in many forms. What one sect of people believe, will find another believes something totally opposite. There are so many religious rituals and beliefs that is hard for anyone to comprehend all the traditions and worship. The human race is always striving to find a sense of peace and harmony, and are searching for what will give them that feeling and understanding. The Oxford English Dictionary (n. d. ) defines religion as a particular system of faith and worship. It is interesting to note that faith and worship are the two components of religion. Religion has eight elements according to (Molloy, 2010); belief system, community, central myths, rituals, ethics, characteristic emotional experiences, material expressions, and sacredness. Each religion has its own belief system and ideas. There are three indigenous religion cultures that will be described; the Igbo, Pueblo people, and the Hawaiian religion. Igdo worship the goddess of the earth and various spirits such as the river, the yam, and the hearth.
Igdo people worship the high God Chukwu and Chineke. Igbos believe that each person has a unique spirit and they can control their own fate. No mention of any kind texts they use for instruction, but they do use masks for use in dances and ceremonies. The Igdo believe that the funeral is the most important ritual. They say that they help the deceased inter the spiritual world. The pueblo people believed in the kachinas, and are the guardian spirits, and are believed to be with the people during ceremonial occasions. The mountains, rivers, and lakes are sacred to the Pueblos. The leader is said to live in these areas, along with the souls of the dead. They believe in that their people move upward through colored worlds. Six religious societies are mentioned as; dedicated to the sun, rainmakers, animal deities, war gods, guardian spirits, and priests. The Hawaiian religion believes in the chant called Kumulipo. They worship too many gods on many different islands. The two most important gods were Ku and Lono. Ku was the patron and Lono was the God of peace. Ten days in a lunar month were sacred to the Hawaiians and work was forbidden on those days.
The goddess of fire, Pele, was involved the volcano eruptions. These gods were capable of transforming themselves into different shapes. Men and women ate separately. They could not eat pork, coconuts, bananas, and taro. They had a spiritual power called mana, who had to be protected from evil spirits. Public prayer was common. The Apostolic Pentecost may be one religion not heard of much today, but this is the religion I believe. This religion believes in one God named Jesus Christ, who died and rose from the grave to save us from the place called hell.
The King James Version of the Bible is the text of reading. They believe in repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Spirit to enter into heaven according to Acts 2:38. The doctrine is according to the apostle’s doctrine in when a person receives the spirit; you will speak in new tongue as the spirit gives the utterance. People accuse this religion that speaking in tongues were for the apostle’s age only, but this has proven to be a myth only. They worship in church with hands lifted in praise. There can be dancing and singing to the God Jesus. The word of God says that a pastor of the church, will lead the church. There is what they call the five-fold ministry. The five-fold ministry is described as pastors, teachers, preachers, evangelists, and prophets, which are used in the ministry. These ministries are sacred to the church and respected as leaders.
Conclusion
Religion comes in many forms. Most religions of today worship the God of heaven, but as you have seen, many of different sects of people worship other gods such as rivers, mountains, and idols made of stone.
It is important to know the belief system, community, central myths, rituals, ethics, characteristic emotional experiences, material expressions, and sacredness of any religion because if you ever had the opportunity to visit one of those places, you would know what to respect as sacred to the people.
Reference
- Molloy, M. (2010). Experiencing the world’s religions: Tradition, challenge, and change (5th ed. ). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Religion (n. d. ).
- In Oxford English dictionary online. Retrieved November 28, 2010, from http://www. oed. com/
