Gym Drill and Other Rituals

At the all-girls school I attended as a teenager, one Saturday each year was set aside for “Gym Drill.” In the afternoon, hundreds of people, including all students and most parents, gathered around the sidelines of the school soccer field. Large speakers were placed at the corners of the field to project music. One by one, each class of girls would take the field and perform a traditional dance from a different part of the world.

I need to tell you about the “Gym Drill tunics” so that you can fully picture the scene. The tunics, worn by every student, were hunter green, and looked like pleated mu-mus. Each tunic had the last name of the wearer embroidered on the back in white thread.

Gym drill was started in the early 1900’s. At this time, women exercising, much less in public, may have been considered radical. And tunics may have been considered attractive. Clearly, things have changed.

Sometimes we would rebel against Gym Drill. One year my best friend and I dyed her hair bright blue for Gym Drill. Every year, I would act like I was too cool to really dance (the truth is that I was very uncoordinated).

But I never decided to just skip it. Gym Drill has been happening for 103 years, and as far as I know, almost everyone shows up every year. It’s a way to mark the passing of one more year, to bond with classmates, and to come together as a community.

Gym Drill is a kind of ritual–an activity that is performed in the same way over and over again. I’ve been thinking a lot about rituals recently–why we do them and how we are shaped by them. Healthy rituals are a crucial part of spiritual development. At their best, rituals create a sense of safety and continuity that allows us to have a deeper spiritual experience.

But developing and maintaining rituals is not easy. Sometimes, rituals can lose their meaning. Or our lives change in ways that force us to leave the old rituals behind. This year I’ve found myself creating some new and wonderful rituals (such as writing for this website). I’ve also been struggling to continue some old rituals that are harder to fit into my life than they used to be.

These changes have left me wondering how other Unitarian Universalists have approached ritual. What rituals have developed in Unitarian Universalism? What do different Unitarian Universalists believe about ritual? How can one blend new and old rituals together?

This week I will be exploring Unitarian Universalist approaches to ritual, and will be sharing different examples and ideas with you here. Please comment as the spirit moves you. I enjoy hearing stories, questions and examples from your experiences.