Religious Processions in Indonesia: Cultural Identity and Politics on Bali and Lombok

In Bali and Lombok in Indonesia, processions—like similar events in many other parts of the world—are ritualized events breaking the normal flow of time. They are always temporally marked, and can be characterized as either religious and temple- or mosque-sponsored, or secular and state-sponsored. This article discusses religious processions generally on the neighbor islands of Bali and Lombok, and focuses on the processions of the spectacular Lingsar temple festival on Lombok. The festival conjoins the migrant Hindu Balinese and the local Muslim Sasak (the majority ethnic group) in ritual participation, but that participation differs in significant ways that are represented in the processions. For the Balinese, the festival is religious and tied to the original, divinely inspired mission from Bali to Lombok; for the Sasak, the festival is “cultural” and a memorial to a Muslim hero who introduced the religion and sacrificed himself to initiate rice field fertility for Sasak descendants. The festival requires an astounding 12 Sasak processions, seven Balinese processions and two mixed processions (some traverse between sacred points, others circumambulate). The music – primarily performed by gamelan ensembles – transforms the notion of time, calls forth the divine, announces the missions and narratives of the processions, and represents both the contestations between Sasak and Balinese over temple ownership and the eventual transcendence of that tension to interreligious unity. And, it is this unity that is the overarching goal of the festival

Civic Identity and Civic Glue: Venetian Processions and Ceremonies of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Processions were an integral part of Venetian religious and civic life. State and church were inextricably intertwined, since the doge served not only as the head of the civil government, but also as the governor of the ducal church of St. Mark’s, by far the most important ecclesiastical institution in the city. Processions on feast days as well as processions celebrating civic events all culminated in some kind of religious service. Ducal processions included the two instrumental ensembles of the doge: his pifferi and his six long silver trumpets. Other instruments and singers from St. Mark’s also participated in official processions. Aside from ducal processions, the city’s confraternities and many churches mounted their own processions, often including instruments and singers on their patron saints’ feast days, the first Sunday of every month, during Holy Week and for funerals of members. These processions were very frequent, often wound through various parts of the city, and were a major factor in displaying governmental authority, the city’s institutions and in creating a sense of civic identity and unity. The article concludes with an account of the four-day celebration of the coronation of the Dogaressa Morosina Morosini Grimani 4-7 May, 1597 to illustrate the intertwining and integration of processions, religion, governmental authority and public entertainment, all accompanied by music, in a spectacular example of the unifying effects of such festivities

The Sound of Semana Santa

This anthropological research gives insight in the meaning of music for the religious experience of participants of the processions in Antigua, Guatemala. By placing the theories of lived religion, material religion and aesthetics at the central stage, the process whereby the marchas fúnebres, the music played in the processions, mediate religious experience for the participants is explained. The material-sensorial elements of the processions, the practice of carrying, and the emotional effect of the music which refers to extra-musical memories, all provide the context for and strengthen the communication of the participants with God

Gandang Tasa: The King of Processional Music in Minangkabau

Gandang tasa is a genre of traditional percussion music that continues to dominate various traditional and religious processions in Minangkabau, West Sumatra. Its musical power rests only on the performance of the rhythmic patterns of the gendang and tasa, which are played simultaneously and in an impulsive manner. The music is loud, energetic, and played in an open arena, either in the form of a procession or in an outdoor performance. The goal of this article is to discuss the dominant role of gandang tasa in various traditional and religious ritual processions in the Minangkabau community. The research method is a case study which focuses on the presence of gandang tasa in various ritual processions. The research results show that the loud, energetic character of the music, and the musical power of the rhythmic patterns played by the gandang tasa have led this music to dominate traditional and religious ritual processions in Minangkabau. Keywords: gandang tasa, king of processional music, energetic, Minangkabau DOI: 10.7176/ADS/83-02 Publication date:July 31st 202

Somber Celebrations: Funeral Processions and Civic Community in 17th century Vilnius

The present article examines the political significance of funeral processions in a multifaith environment. Seventeenth century Vilnius presents a rich case study for such research as it was home to five Christian denominations, whose coexistence was not always peaceful. Religious disagreements were often brought forward by public ritual action and prior historiography tends to view ritual as a liability. This article argues that under certain conditions funeral processions furthered civic belonging. In order to do so, the article begins with exploring occasions of religious violence in 17th century Vilnius and describes the interdenominational relationship among the inhabitants of the city. It continues by reconstructing the form of funeral processions by analyzing last wills and post-mortem registers. Lastly, these occasions are interpreted through the lens of semiotic anthropology, showing the binding potential of funeral processions on the civic community of 17th century Vilnius

Religious processions: Urban politics and poetics

Temenos412225-24

Narration of the story of the death of Imam Hossein

During the month of Moharram, after the processions round the village, in the evenings certain individuals hosted a gathering in their house or in the mosque. A religious and literate villager told the story of the suffering and death of Imam Hossein and his family. The audience cries, and when the emotions get too strong, the leader starts to sing the story. These ‘rozeh’ where a speaker explains an aspect of religion are also held during Ramazan and on other religious days.Materials collected during field research for a D.Phil (Oxford University) in Iran in 1974 and 1975/6, and during short return visits in 1992, 1995, 1996. Audio recordings include: folk stories, music and songs, rituals, people’s own historical recollections

Religious Processions: Additional Results

У раду се, у најосновнијим цртама, представљају финални резултати истраживања ритуала литијског опхода, спровођених током претходних година у областима српског етничког простора. Консултована је целокупна доступна литература о ритуалу литија, а највећи део теренских истраживања остварен је на подручју источне сврљишке културне зоне (обрађено је свих 19 села), с тим да су истраживањима обухваћене и друге области, у циљу комплетирања опште представе. На овом месту се издвајају они резултати и закључци који имају посебан значај за проучавање овог феномена и указују на извесне до сада непознате специфичности. Нагласак је стављен на сагледавање неких од најинтригантнијих и најзначајнијих импликација проистеклих из истраживања, међу којима су издвојене оне које су везане за концепт синхронијске комуникације и универзалне структуре мишљења.The paper discusses several important and interesting aspects of the Serbian ritual of religious procession; the ritual is one of the main, especially elaborated and of the central importance in Serbian folk religion. During an extensive fieldwork, we were able to discover many unknown facts that pointed out to a presence of complex models and mythological images within the religious procession. This, in fact, influenced a construction of a specific methodological key, which corresponded to the complexity of the problem, based on multi-dimensional structural-semantic analytical approach (see my monograph Ritual of the Mind) and certain types of mind experiments, when allowed. In the first part of the paper, we present a brief summary of the previously done research, while the second part of the paper covers unusual implications streaming from the results, which also point out to new possibilities for research and new perspectives. The implications of the special importance encompass concepts of synchronic communication and universal structure of thought, created with an aim to summarize and analyze specific features and conclusions connected directly with the research of religious ritual processions. That is, in the context of the paper’s conclusion – the appropriate research and discussion – the religious procession ( whose paradigmatic possibilities are expressed in the eastern Svrljig area) appears as a special expression of basic principles of the universal structure of thought/mind, reflected in a series of cultural phenomena (which are synchronically posted and knitted into wider and more complex systems), starting from linguistic and logical models to mythical-ritual systems.Зборник радова Етнографског института САНУ 23 / Collection of Papers of the Institute of Ethnography SASA 2