If rituals did not exist, we would have to invent them. We need ceremonies and rituals to define ourselves socially and culturally.
There is a tradition in India to not name a baby until he is a few weeks old; that is when a humble naming ceremony is held, and the family together agrees on a name, guided by 'pundit' who tell them which phonetic should the name should start with to be the most auspicious. Rituals like these have found their way into every society on Earth without exception, and the question of whether we can live without them is a great exercise upon the mind. (?)
Most cultures set aside a day of the week for worship. This is why Christians dress their best on Sundays, why Friday markets are all the rage in the Middle East, and why anything non-vegetarian is hard to come by in Indian restaurants on a Thursday. This is how traditions come to be -- often by sheer necessity. Rituals are more functional than they seem at first glance. Certain things, like a yearly deep cleaning of the house or a day of worship for a religious person, need doing. But, very often, that isn't enough of a push to get them done, and a routine and some social impetus are needed. Rituals like an annual Spring cleaning or a set day of worship provide just that. They instill habits into society at large, which is no small feat, by getting people do something at a fixed time, every year or every week. Habits are an effective way to get work done because they are easy to follow, even for the weak-willed, and they form the crux of the idea of rituals.
As we delve deeper into the idea that many rituals are just habits, we realise that they are unavoidable due to the way we are wired. Rituals, especially the smaller ones, often make us happy as we react to a particular situation with a fixed response that gratifies the pleasure-centers of our brains. Here, we may take the example of two friends who meet for tea and biscuits on the evening of every rainy day, and make a little ritual of this pleasurable pastime. This tendency is not unique to humans -- dogs are known for the ritualistic leaping hugs that await their owners when they come home from a long day of work. Not one of us could imagine a life without these sweet little habits that make our lives worth living.
Expanding on the example of the two friends bonding over tea, we can see that these habits hold a lot of emotional significance. The tea parties that are sprinkled throughout the season solidify the special social positions both the friends hold in each other's lives. These habits mark the difference between coworkers and friends, between friends and close friends, and between close friends and siblings, and so on. When you and an acquaintance find yourself involved so deeply in each other's lives that you become a ritual habit, do you not realise that you two are no longer casual acquaintances? We bond with people over every one of the ceremonies that some think are an outmoded relic of the past, like families coming together to name a newborn Indian child, or sharing a cake with friends on a birthday, or people exchanging gifts on Christmas.
Then, it becomes obvious that the birth of rituals is a large-scale phenomenon deep-rooted in our human physiology that can not be erased, nor should it be. Rituals are cultural habits with emotional significance: they are functional and indispensable and serve as expressions of interpersonal relationships, and thus do, in fact, define us socially and culturally.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 366, Rule ID: WHETHER[3]
Message: Wordiness: Shorten this phrase to the shortest possible suggestion.
Suggestion: whether; the question whether
...society on Earth without exception, and the question of whether we can live without them is a great exe...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 510, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: isn't
...rson, need doing. But, very often, that isnt enough of a push to get them done, and ...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, if, may, so, still, then, thus, in fact
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.5258426966 149% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 12.4196629213 72% => OK
Conjunction : 24.0 14.8657303371 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 22.0 11.3162921348 194% => OK
Pronoun: 58.0 33.0505617978 175% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 81.0 58.6224719101 138% => OK
Nominalization: 8.0 12.9106741573 62% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2795.0 2235.4752809 125% => OK
No of words: 598.0 442.535393258 135% => OK
Chars per words: 4.67391304348 5.05705443957 92% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.94510247834 4.55969084622 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.57690105484 2.79657885939 92% => OK
Unique words: 308.0 215.323595506 143% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.515050167224 0.4932671777 104% => OK
syllable_count: 872.1 704.065955056 124% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59117977528 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 12.0 6.24550561798 192% => OK
Article: 1.0 4.99550561798 20% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 3.10617977528 64% => OK
Conjunction: 12.0 1.77640449438 676% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 5.0 4.38483146067 114% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 20.2370786517 114% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 23.0359550562 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 54.7435678693 60.3974514979 91% => OK
Chars per sentence: 121.52173913 118.986275619 102% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.0 23.4991977007 111% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.21739130435 5.21951772744 42% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.97078651685 101% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 7.80617977528 26% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 14.0 10.2758426966 136% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 5.13820224719 78% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.83258426966 103% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.199795841124 0.243740707755 82% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0536604729874 0.0831039109588 65% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0600781475009 0.0758088955206 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.11258484435 0.150359130593 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0366597193085 0.0667264976115 55% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.6 14.1392134831 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 53.55 48.8420337079 110% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.1743820225 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.1 12.1639044944 83% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.2 8.38706741573 98% => OK
difficult_words: 124.0 100.480337079 123% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 11.8971910112 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.2143820225 111% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.7820224719 110% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.