We are coming to the end of the April 2020 A to Z Blog Challenge .
For this post, I am updating a post I did for the 1018 A to Z challenge, because this posted looked at how a people integrate memory into cultural ceremony. Yahrzeit is a yiddish term for an anniversary we observe on the day of a person’s death. Year-mind is just a 15th century word that was used to refer to any anniversary or memorial. When world building, we are reminded of how important annual remembrances, celebrations and anniversaries are to building a cohesive culture that binds (or separates) people within a world.
The idea that we regularly mark a day of emotional importance–be it grief or joy–reminds us how much we need these rituals to create meaning and coherence into:
Our Personal Relationships
and into the structure of our societies.
Grief, celebration and cultural memory create a common narrative on which society hinges. When those disappear, or don’t exist, it is hard for people to build enduring bonds that sustain under challenge and threat.
Visit all the bloggers participating on the A to Z Challenge.
This year we’re marking the milestones of shelter-at-home. Tomorrow will be Day 50 for me.
Good point in world creation; it says a lot about a society to know what sorts of things they commemorate and how.
(Click the Blog link on the second row) : Y is for York
That makes sense, to recognize shelter at home as a major life event. It is. Day 50, that’s a number. Hard to believe sometimes, and yet it here it.