Rituals

God may be dead, as far as the Williams religion department is concerned, but every well-rounded Trivia team should know a little something about rituals.

So, Challenger Teams! Show us your ritual knowledge!

SOCIAL RITUALS

1. In the ritual of gift acknowledgement, what must be mentioned in writing?
   What the gift is.

2. What teenage ritual is reversed in the event of a Sadie Hawkins Dance?
   Who asks whom. For a SH Dance, the girls invite the boys.

3. What annual festival in Nevada eerily echoes the symbolism of the Celtic festival of Lughnasadh?
   Burning Man.

4. What food do American Southerners ritually eat on New Year's Day?
   Black-eyed peas.

5. Describe the ritual of dealing cards in a game of bridge.
   Before the deal, the deck is cut by the person to the right of the dealer. The cards are dealt one at a time, clockwise. The person opposite the dealer 'makes' the second deck.

6. When do carpenters ritually affix a tree to a building?
   When they put the roof in place.

7. It's a ritualized catch-phrase after anybody sneezes -- but what does "Gesundheit" mean?
   Good health (or strength). NOT "God bless you."

8. In order to get candy and trinkets during Mardi Gras parades, what must revelers do?
   Lift their shirts

THEATER RITUALS

9. THE SCOTTISH PLAY. Most actors know that mentioning the actual name of the Scottish Play inside a theatre is bad luck. What's the exception: when is it okay to say "Macbeth"? What must an actor ritually do if s/he accidentally says "Macbeth"?
   When you're performing/practicing the play itself, and the word is in your line. Turn around twice, knock on a door three times and spit. (Banishing may vary - alternate answers are okay)

10. Complete this tongue-twister, commonly used in theatrical warmups:

     
        "To sit in solemn silence/_____________ 
         In a pestilential prison/______________ 
         Awaiting the sensation/______________ 
         From a cheap and chippy chopper/______________." 
    

    
    In a deep dark dock / With a life-long lock / Of a short sharp shock / On a big black block

11. What is a "ghost light?" What practical and ritual purposes does it have?
    A single light left on stage overnight. It keeps people from tripping on things in the dark before they can get the work lights on -- and it also lights all the ghosts in the theater as they perform in the empty building.

WEDDING RITUALS

12. With what are Jewish brides and grooms pelted during an Aufruf pre-wedding ritual?
    candy

13. Describe the cultural origin of a broom-jumping ceremony.
    African-Americans; sweeping away of the old and welcoming the new, or a symbol of a new beginning. (Historically, American slaves couldn't marry, so this agreement could be undone easily by jumping backward over the broom.)

14. What is the ritual significance behind the custom of throwing rice at a bride and groom?
    Rice is a fertility symbol

15. Briefly describe the principal way in which Latter-Day Saint weddings differ from the American Protestant norm.
    No family or congregation attend, only the bride, groom, and celebrant.

16. Many brides still dress for their wedding day according to this rhyme that originated in Victorian times. Fill in the blanks:

    Something _________, Something ______,  
    Something ________, Something _______ , 
    and a _________________ in her Shoe. 
    

    
    1)old, 2)new, 3)borrowed, 4)blue, 5)silver sixpence/penny

17. With what spice are traditional Hindu bride and groom rubbed in the ritual of Halad?
    Turmeric.

18. What's the final ritual in most Jewish weddings, and what does it signify?
    Breaking a glass; scaring away evil spirits, remembering the Holocaust, or showing that even in the midst of great joy there is separateness or brokenness in humanity. Any reasonable explanation will do, though.

19. During a full Roman Catholic wedding mass, the bride is taken aside for a time, and special prayers are said. For what purpose?
    To bless her womb.

RELIGIOUS RITUALS

20. What is the name of the ritual welcoming a boy into the Jewish tradition, and when does it take place?
    Brit/bris milah, eighth days after birth

21. What word, common to all versions of the Nicene Creed, was inadvertently omitted in the Episcopal "Book of Common Prayer" until the revision of 1979?
    Holy.

22. When reciting the Rosary, which prayer do you say for a decade of beads? For a single bead by itself?
    Hail Mary; Our Father.

23. In traditional "non-programmed" Quakerism, who presides over weddings and funerals?
    The entire congregation.

24. You're a Witch in the Reclaiming tradition. Call the quarters.
    "By the earth that is her body; by the air that is her breath; by the fire of her bright spirit; by the living waters of her womb; the circle is cast." Or anything else that includes the elements/directions in that order.

25. What are the five holy deeds required of every Muslim?
    Repeating the universal creed of Islam; prayer five times a day; almsgiving to the poor; fasting during Ramadan; pilgrimage to Mecca.

26. What's the name of the ritual performed to redeem a Jewish firstborn son from the priesthood? What's the going rate for a firstborn son in this ritual?
    Pidyon Ha-Ben; Five silver pieces/coins

27. What do Swedish girls wear in their hair for St. Lucia's Day?
    A wreath with lit candles.

28. In Hawaiian shamanism, what is 'kahi'?
    The act of healing by moving energy from one part of the body to another.

29. What's the central ritual in Western Christian church services? What are the central two elements in this (be careful)?
    Communion/Eucharist; Bread and wine represent body and blood of Jesus - except in branches of the church which go for transubstantiation, in which case they don't represent, they actually become.

30. From what ritual has caroling evolved?
    Wassail, or collecting singers from around a village to visit the lord's house at Yule.

31. What is the significance of the Threefold Refuge, or tisarana gamana?
    Recitation signifies a lay Buddhist's intention to become (or remain) a Buddhist.

32. What is done at the Japanese festival of O-Bon, in mid-August?
    Visit (and feast) at ancestors' graves and lead their spirits home with bonfires

33. What is havdalah? What items are used?
    Separation (end of the sabbath, beginning of the work week.) Multi-part or braided candle, spices, wine.

34. What does the wearing of the orange on St. Patrick's day symbolize in Ireland?
    That one is (both Irish and) Protestant.

35. What is the advent wreath? Describe what it looks like and how it is used.
    A circular wreath of greenery with four candles placed evenly on top of it, three of one color and one of another. One candle is lit for each Sunday of Advent, the last one (of the odd color) being lit on the last Sunday.

36. Bread, candle, feather, wooden spoon: what Jewish ritual involves these items?
    Removing leaven from the house before Passover

37. What are the seven sacraments of the Catholic church?
    baptism, penance, eucharist, confirmation, marriage, holy orders, extreme unction (last rites)

38. Why must there be two loaves of bread in a traditional Jewish Sabbath ritual? Why are they salted?
    To represent the double portion of manna which fell from God on the Sabbath during the Exodus, and to represent the salting of ancient Temple sacrifice

39. Name the principal tools of the four quarters on a neo-pagan witch's altar.
    Pentacle, athame (knife or sword acceptable), wand, and chalice.

40. To whom is a rope tied, in a traditional Dagadi funeral, and why?
    To the widow, to keep her from following her husband into the spirit world.

41. When would a Korean Buddhist perform a Youngsan ritual?
    Forty-nine days after the death of a loved one.

SPORTS RITUALS

42. With what ritual are public figures honored at baseball games?
    Throwing out the first pitch.

43. What ritual do Green Bay Packers enact after every touchdown at Lambeau Field?
    The Lambeau Leap.

44. What ritual takes place late in every baseball game? What is recited?
    The seventh-inning stretch; singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"

45. How many black goats does George Steinbrenner sacrifice before each World Series in order to keep the Yankees winning?
    Any answer will do.

46. What ritual does the Notre Dame football team enact the night before every game?
    Paint and buff their helmets. The paint contains gold flakes.

47. What ritual act do Brigham Young ROTC members perform each time the BYU football team scores?
    pushups (as many as the number on the scoreboard)

48. 'Chief Osceola'-- a student dressed in authentic Native American clothing -- rides an appaloosa horse named Renegade to midfield and hurls a 28-pound flaming spear into the ground at the 50-yard line in the opening football ritual for which school?
    Florida State.

49. What ritual did Tom Gordon, former pitcher for the Red Sox, perform after each strikeout, and why?
    Pointed at the sky, as a way of giving credit for the strikeout to God.

50. What sea animal do NHL fans in Detroit throw on the ice, and what is the meaning of this ritual?
    Squid, to represent the eight games that teams used to have to win in order to win the Stanley Cup (pre-expansion).