Ritual

A ritual "is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, and objects, performed in a sequestered place, and performed according to set sequence." Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized by formalism, traditionalism, invariance, rule-governance, sacral symbolism, and performance.

Rituals are a feature of all known human societies. They include not only the worship rites and sacraments of organized religions and cults, but also rites of passage, atonement and purification rites, oaths of allegiance, dedication ceremonies, coronations and presidential inaugurations, marriages and funerals, school "rush" traditions and graduations, club meetings, sporting events, Halloween parties, veterans parades, Christmas shopping and more. Many activities that are ostensibly performed for concrete purposes, such as jury trials, execution of criminals, and scientific symposia, are loaded with purely symbolic actions prescribed by regulations or tradition, and thus partly ritualistic in nature. Even common actions like hand-shaking and saying hello may be termed rituals.

Ritual (Shaaman album)

Ritual is the first album by the Brazilian heavy metal band Shaman. It was first released in 2002, and it is a concept album, about many cultures, mainly indigenous cultures and shamanism. The album sold over 500,000 copies worldwide since its release.

Track listing

All lyrics by Andre Matos.

Line up

Guests

List of concepts in Artemis Fowl

This is a list of fictional concepts in Artemis Fowl, a novel series by Eoin Colfer.

Fairy concepts

Bio-bomb

A high-tech, fairy-manufactured guided missile, also known as a "bio-bomb" or a "blue-rinse" because of its blue colour. Once detonated, it employs the radioactive energy source Solinium 2 (an element not yet discovered by humans), destroying all living tissue in the area while leaving landscape and buildings untouched. It was used on Fowl Manor in Artemis Fowl, and, later, in Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception, Opal Koboi manufactures a larger missile-guided bio-bomb and a compact bio-bomb with a plasma screen that can only be blocked by the rigid polymer of a LEP helmet.

Book of the People

The Book of the People is the Fairy bible, known by the fairies themselves simply as the Book. It is written in Gnommish, the fairy language. As it contains the history of the People and their life teachings, Artemis Fowl manages to secure a copy from an alcoholic fairy in Ho Chi Minh City and use it to kidnap Holly Short, and to decode Gnommish. The first few lines are included in the first book.

Ritual (band)

Ritual was an early 1980s Harrow-based post-punk band that were later aligned with the early UK-based gothic rock movement. The group is more commonly associated with the bands the former members took up arms with: In Excelsis and Death Cult (later The Cult).

History

Formation

Ritual was formed out of the remnants of the Harrow-based punk band General Confusion, which included Steve Pankhurst on drums. Formed in December 1979, General Confusion played its first gig at Watford College supporting Toyah.

After two name changes (Suppressed Emotion and Stigma) and lineup shifts (a new drummer, Peter Gould, was brought onboard and Pankhurst switched to saxophone), the band finally settled on a permanent lineup and the name Ritual in 1981. The new lineup consisted of Errol Blyth (vocals), Mark Bond (bass), Steve Pankhurst (saxophone), Raymond Taylor-Smith (simply referred to as "Ray", drums), and the newly recruited 17-year-old Jamie Stewart (guitar). The band's name did not carry any religious significance but was instead chosen for its "sharpness" and the fact "it goes with the music to an extent".

Ritual (Pinner novel)

Ritual is a horror novel by British actor and author David Pinner, first published in 1967.

Plot

The protagonist of Ritual is an English police officer named David Hanlin. A puritanical Christian, Hanlin is requested to investigate what appears to be the ritualistic murder of a local child in an enclosed rural Cornish village. During his short stay, Hanlin deals with psychological trickery, sexual seduction, ancient religious practices and nightmarish sacrificial rituals.

Writing

When Pinner was 26, he had just written the vampire comedy Fanghorn, and was playing the lead role of Sergeant Trotter in Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap in the West End of London. He decided to write a film treatment that dealt with the occult (like Fanghorn) but which was also a detective story (like The Mousetrap). Film director Michael Winner liked Pinner's Ritual treatment, and considered making it his next film, with English actor John Hurt in mind for the lead role. However, Winner deemed the treatment to be "too full of imagery", and Pinner's agent, Jonathan Clowes, felt that Winner might sit on the project for a long time. The collaboration came to a halt.

Ritual (The Black Dahlia Murder album)

Ritual is the fifth studio album by American melodic death metal band The Black Dahlia Murder. It was released on June 17 in Europe and on June 21 in North America via Metal Blade Records. It is the band's last record to feature Ryan "Bart" Williams on bass and Shannon Lucas on drums. The album sold 12,960 copies in the United States in its first week of release and debuted at #31 on the Billboard 200.

Production and recording

The album was once again produced by Mark Lewis, who also worked on the band's 2009 album Deflorate. Frontman Trevor Strnad considers Ritual "the most focused Black Dahlia Murder strike of all time."

"The whole thread of the songs is more tied together than ever before," explains Strnad. "Part of it was kind of like, 'What can we do that's the most Black Dahlia Murder thing? What's going to be the most quintessential Black Dahlia Murder thing we can do?' That's kind of what we set our foothold in. And 'Ritual', it just lends itself to that — it's mysticism and magic and all of that. Everyone has an association with some kind of ritual, so we just thought it was the next logical step."