World religious rituals and celebrations - questions and activities

Lower primary – Religious symbols
1. What does the word ‘sacred’ mean? 
Sacred: connected with God or dedicated to a religious purpose and so deserving great respect.
Explore the word with some of these strategies:
•    Mystery box: fill the box with items or pictures of items that you could consider sacred, such as a cross, a Bible, bread, wine, a candle (paschal candle), bells, tabernacle, baptismal font, altar, oil, water, etc. You will find some useful pictures here and here.
•    Students act out the word ‘sacred’ with their bodies. 
•    Students put the word ‘sacred’ in a sentence, then share their sentence with their partner for feedback, improve their sentence, then share their sentence with the class. 
•    Ask students to explain the word sacred to someone from a younger class or a sibling and then report back on whether they thought the other student could understand what they meant. 
•    Add the word ‘sacred’ to your word wall with some pictures to help students access the meaning of the word. 

•    Use the five senses to describe the word ‘sacred’. 
2. Sacred places and sacred rituals
Make a list of scared places.
What is a ritual? What rituals do you perform in your day? Are there special Catholic rituals? Make a list of Catholic rituals.
Go back and look at your list of sacred spaces. What rituals take place in these sacred spaces? 
Resource: Catholic Identity - Sacred spaces; sacred rituals
3. Take a virtual tour of St Patrick’s in Parramatta and then tour your local Church and see if you can identify the same elements in your Church.
Together at one altar: explore the cathedral
This Catholic scavenger hunt free printable may be helpful.
Booklet: What will I see in a Catholic Church 
Mass Communication – Articles of Mass (good diagram)
4. Worksheets and activities:
Try this free Catholic Mass Objects Puzzle activity from Fourth Grade Frenzy. 
Colour and paste Altar worksheet courtesy of St Martha Catholic Church Montessori Sunday School
Bread and wine dot-to-dot
Ask to students to colour in the picture(s) and label any sacred objects that they can see. 
•    Page 1 (source: Maria on Pinterest) 
•    Page 2 (source: Maria on Pinterest) 
Catholic Altar Worksheet
Catholic Spelling & Vocabulary Words Church Worksheets
Introduce the concept of sacred vessels with this trivia activity from Miss HMBee. 
5. Signs and symbol’s poster or slideshow making activity.
Explore the ‘Signs and Symbols’ resources from Together at One Altar. 
Younger students work in groups to make posters of the following signs and symbols:
•    Laying on of hands
•    Oil
•    Fire/light
•    Bread
•    Wine
•    Water
•    White garment
Very young students can be given a table with each term on it, and they can draw each symbol underneath.
Older students can make a PowerPoint that explains each of the signs or symbols and gives a picture of each (consider taking the photos on the Church tour incursion/excursion mentioned above). Students then record a voiceover for the PowerPoint presentation that acts like a recorded speech to demonstrate their knowledge of signs and symbols. When using PowerPoint, don’t let students fall victim to the ‘tyranny of the blank page’. Give them guidance on content, design, presentation and layout. Scaffold your lessons in such a way that it supports students to organise their thinking and give them a chance to present their best argument. This article from HubSpot has lots of information that you can use to support your students. 
The Presenter’s Guide to Nailing Your Next PowerPoint
Don McMillan: Life After Death by PowerPoint (YouTube Comedy Video on How NOT to Use Powerpoint)

 

Upper primary – How do Christians celebrate? How do other religions celebrate? 
1. Play Pin the Palm on the Donkey, Mary and Martha Musical Chairs or The Unfolding of the Kingdom of God from Gaming the Gospels – Party games edition. Ask students after whether they have played a game like this before. Where did they play it and why? Was it part of a celebration? 
2. Read the article ‘Explorations: Joy and Thanksgiving’ to the class and then hold a class discussion and reflection session using the questions at the end of the article.
2. Break the class up into groups and give each group a section of one of the following articles. Students are to summarise the article and then create a PowerPoint that they will use to ‘teach’ the class about the content of the article. 
Church communities: worship
•    Celebrations
•    Reasons for celebrating
•    Elements of a celebration
•    The Church community celebrates
•    The Liturgical year
•    The local Church celebrates special events
Ways Christians celebrate
•    Celebration
•    Liturgical celebration 
Brisbane Catholic Identity: Prayer and worship 
•    Prayer
•    Worship
Resource: How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples 
3. Read the article ‘A feast of festivities’ by young writers Teagan Brunner and Teresa Fernandez.
Answer the following questions:
•    List three things you remember from the article.
•    Have your heard of these festivals before? 
•    Have you participated in any of these festivals? What happened? Did you enjoy it? Why/why not?
•    What did you find surprising in the article?
•    What did you find interesting?
•    What makes you curious?
•    Is there anything you would like to know more about? 
•    Did your understanding of any of the festivals change today?
•    How are these festivals like other festivals you have experienced?
4. Students research a world festival and create a mini-documentary or visual essay about that festivity, comparing it to Catholic worship and celebration. 
Resource: Let’s Celebrate Festivals across the Faiths 2023
5. Learn about Ramadan colouring page (for early finishers or a mindful start to a lesson)

 

Lower secondary – Comparing a world religion to Catholicism
1. What is a religion?  
Religion: Derivation, analysis, and definition (New Advent)
Watch: What is Religion – Let’s Talk Religion
Aquinas’ Understanding of Religion
2. Does religion play a role in your life? What does religion mean to you? Do you partake in any religious practices? Do you hold any religious beliefs? Write a reflection in your journal. 
3. Define the following terms: prayer, ritual, scriptures, Canon law, tradition, worship, culture, belief, spirituality. 
Resources:
Together at One Altar Glossary
Brisbane Catholic Identity Glossary
National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) Glossary
‘Traditional rituals’ in traditional prayer and ritual by Catholic Identity
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Brisbane Catholic Identity: Prayer and worship
Brill: Vocabulary for the Study of Religion
New World Encyclopedia: Culture 
4. Introduction to World Religions
PowerPoints:
5 Major World religions (Anderson County Schools)
World Religions (Pearland Independent School District)
Major Religions of the World (University of Missouri–St. Louis)
Resources:
World History – Religion Review
This worksheet will help students review the key details (founder, sacred text etc.) of the major world religions.
Graphic Organisers:
Religion Matrix (blank)
World Religions Graphic Organiser
Religion Graphic Organiser
World Religion Blank Notes Sheet
5. Read the article ‘A feast of festivities’ by young writers Teagan Brunner and Teresa Fernandez.
Create a table the compares the four festivals across the following dimensions:
•    Name of festival
•    When celebrated?
•    Who celebrates?
•    Where celebrated?
•    Why celebrated?
•    How celebrated? 
•    What rituals are performed?
•    What symbols are present?
•    Something you found interesting.
Add a Catholic festival to the table. Use the information to write a fifth section for the article describing this festival in the same structure and tone as the rest of the article.
6. Research a world religion and compare it to Catholicism. Consider the following in your comparison: 
•    festivals 
•    rites of passage
•    prayers and rituals
•    ethics and morality
Resources:
Morality: World Religions
Festivals of light
Muslim prayers and rituals
Cleansing rituals within world religions

 

Upper secondary – Comparing world religions
Students copy down the following notes, the teacher gives them access to the online resources for further reading, then students write an essay comparing two world religions. 
Totemism:
Arnold Van Gennep saw human social institutions as necessary for human survival. He theorized: 
•    Humans form groups in order to survive, and thus those groups have a special place in human evolution.
•    The process of forming groups is the natural tendency of matter, visible in nature.
•    In order for a group to survive, internal cohesion, as well as the continuity of the group through generations had to be achieved.
•    Internal cohesion proliferated independently from secondary groups in the society – family, clan, or caste – and provided the means for establishing the relationship between groups.
•    Society is composed of individuals, and thus individuals have power to change the whole.
Further reading:
New World Encyclopedia: Arnold Van Gennep
New World Encyclopedia: Human evolution
Britannica: Totemism 
Encycolpeida.com: Liminality

Rite of Passage
According to Arnold van Gennep, rites of passage have three phases: 
separation: people withdraw from the group and begin moving from one place or status to another;
liminality: the period between states, during which people have left one place or state but have not yet entered or joined the next. During the liminal state one’s sense of identity dissolves to some extent, as it is a period of transition; and
incorporation: people re-enter society, having completed the rite. 
Source: New World Encyclopedia ‘Rite of passage’

Gennep also made studies of European folklore, viewing folk literature and practices as aspects of a living culture rather than as remains of a dead one. 
Source: Britannica: Arnold van Gennep

Communitas: A term introduced by Victor Turner (The Ritual Process, 1969) to designate the feeling of heightened solidarity produced during the ‘liminal’ moments of ritual, in which participants step outside their prescribed social roles.
Source: Oxford Reference 

Further reading:
Britannica: Rite of passage
New World Encyclopedia: Rite of passage
Britannica: Arnold van Gennep
Encycolpeida.com: Liminality

Ritual
According to Victor Turner, rituals are constructed of symbols, and have three meanings: 
exegetical: (subjective) as explained by the person performing the ritual;
operational: (objective) observed by the researcher, and deals with the purpose of ritual in a society; and 
positional: takes all symbols into account and concerns the relationship between them. 

Turner saw different levels of meaning available to different people:
manifest meaning: apparent to the observer and related to the goal of the ritual;
latent meaning: one that the observer has partial awareness of and may fully understand only later; and
hidden meaning: belongs to the subconscious or unconscious level of the members of the culture and is generally not known by the outside observer.
Source: New World Encyclopedia, ‘Victor Turner’

Further reading:
Oxford Bibliographies: Victor Turner
Encycolpeida.com: Victor Turner 
Britannica: Victor Turner and anti-structure
Encycolpeida.com: Liminality
Britannica: Structural functionalism
Britannica: Ritual
Liminality and Communitas by Victor Turner (via Trinity University)

Participating in Ritual 
[Terence] Lovat (1995, p. 23) attempts to define rituals as events and actions of significance and ceremonies that mark out special moments. These can range from simple daily examples through to highly significant events. (Source: What is a Ritual? By Matthew Aquilina)

Terence Lovat describes five stages of a ritual for a participant: 
1. Leaving of the ordinary and entering the ritual 
2. Engaging in some type of preparatory rite 
3. Experiencing a central or highpoint of the ritual 
4. Joining in some form of celebration in the ritual 
5. Leaving the ritual and returning to the ordinary world. 
Goldburg, P et al (2009) Investigating Religion: Study of Religion for Secondary Students. Cambridge University Press: Melbourne (Quoted in Unit: Spirituality and Ritual)

Further Reading:
Teacher Background: Unit – Spirituality and ritual
Oxford University Department of Education: Terence Lovat
University of Newcastle: Terry Lovat Career Summary
University of Newcastle: Finding inspiration in cultural difference
Terence Lovat’s model (by primary teacher, Matthew Aquilina)

Activity: 
Write a comparative essay comparing two world religions. 
Students investigate their topic, report back to the teacher on their progress, reflect on their learning and progress as they go, then plan a response to the topic. 
Students submit their thesis and plan to the teacher for feedback and then embark on creating an essay or similar response. 
The teacher offers feedback on the draft and students create a product to be submitted for assessment.
Students can use Kath Murdoch’s Inquiry Cycle  to plan how they are going to answer their question in an assignment. 
More information on inquiry can be found here from Griffith University. 
Other resources to support students in their execution of the task:
Planning a guided inquiry unit template 
Inquiry Based Project Template
TACK Method for Peer Feedback
Free goal planner worksheet for teens, potential problems and action steps
The Basic Grammar for a Research Paper (1 of 2) 
(part 2) The Basic Grammar for a Research Paper
Essay Planner
Teachers may like to consider creating digital graphic organisers with Jotform. 
Insight: Writing a comparative essay
Harvard College Writing Centre: How to write a comparative analysis 

General resources:
Lourdes Hill Hawthorne Lib Guide: Religion: Y11/12 Study of Religion
The Tablet student zone: How to get the best marks in your essays
Buddhism & Religion Curriculum 
Hinduism in Religion Curriculum
Islam and Religion Curriculum 
Judaism and Religion Curriculum Secondary 
S WJEC GCE A Level in RELIGIOUS STUDIES (Qualifications Wales) (Glossary of key terms)