Easter season is upon us again. It is time to sharpen up our terminology.
People often confuse tradition and ritual.
celebrating Easter is a tradition … something we do because our ancestors always did it
egg hunts, BBQ’s and holding candles at Mass are rituals … things we do that are often symbolic, but at least understood by all.
Group rituals, like singing hymns together, are a sort of emotional sync … being in touch with others.
Individual rituals are more getting a sense of order and control.
Traditions are like giving a vote to our ancestors … perpetuating what they said and did.
So how is it that Churches are strong on tradition and ritual, but the Linux community has practically none?
Or am I missing something?
Why dont we have occasions for celebration?
Is there such a thing as a computing ritual?
You tell me… I cant find any evidence of this important part of human behaviour in the digital world.
Just some thoughts
Happy Easter to everyone, and thank you for your support
I like your thoughts about tradition and ritual. It really made me think.
Maybe the Linux community does have some small rituals, but we don’t always notice them.
For example, installing a new distro, customizing the system, or helping others in forums could be seen as a kind of ritual. It may not be the same as in religion, but it still brings people together.
Also, events like releases or community projects might be our way of celebrating.
I think it’s just less formal, but not completely missing.
Thanks for sharing your ideas, and Happy Easter to you too.
BTW:
Happy Easter to all forum members and their families as well.
My current wife (just in case I make another change) and i got married on easter Saturday as thats when her kids had a longer holiday to get to the ceremony, no problems with that, but the confusion comes each year as the date for easter moves, so we have to celebrate twice.
I usually take her away for a romantique holiday but this year it falls with kids school holidays so the resort are really busy
I wonder why was it called ‘Good Friday’ if Christ died this day. I did some research on the internet and found this out. It turns out that in some other languages Good Friday is called Holy Friday. In Germany it is called ‘Sorrowful Friday’.
It turns out good in the older English could mean holy, sacred, or righteous.
I know my grandchildren will be happy to get an Easter basket.
Secular Easter traditions come from religions other than Christianity, Paul. Most have to do with spring, fertility, and so on. I have no idea where the chocolate comes from, but I approve!
You missed the Orthodox Church ritual … they have hand painted real eggs.
Well there we go with terminology again. Thank you Howard.
Yes, thank you @Rosika . It seems modern institutions in general do not have organised rituals. Think about our older institutions
Churches of course do have rituals
Governments have opening ceremonies
the Legal system has swearing on the bible
Universities have graduation ceremonies
the Military have parades
but they are all of at least medieval origin.
We dont see any obvious ritual in Airlines, or the Motor industry , or the Digital world, or in Social Media.
I think you have pointed to little signs of it happening in Linux … among all the modern institutions, I think the Linux world is the most sentimental … we live on emotional attachments to various pieces of software. Linux is more old-world-like than most of our other modern creations… it values conservatism and stability and proper function … those are the things the old world liked too.
Lets hope we can one day enjoy a Linux installation ceremony.
The itsFOSS discourse app has ritual. There are Badges, and Anniversaries, and a Leaderboard. Those are old fashioned ritiualistic mechanisms.
Peace be with you Manuel
That is a case of the old world meeting the new.
Calenders themselves are a ritual … a way of dividing up time… but two conflicting calendars is like two Churches or two different legal systems. Wars have been fought over rituals.
It was the French and Germans who came up with the inspired idea to make eggs out of chocolate in the 19th century, though these early confections tended to be solid rather than hollow.
It was for Easter 1873 that Bristol chocolatier JS Fry & Son would create the first chocolate egg.
But the idea of eggs comes from the idea of rebirth in religion term i have just read.
I suppose they are individual rituals that many of us perform regularly, but not in sync with others.
There are more
monitoring temperature
checking disk not full
We tend to delegate the more boring ones to daemons. One could argue that all daemon services are automated rituals … a bit like prayer wheels or candles.
What about traditions. … does Linux world have any traditional regular activities like Easter?
