The Power of Ritual and Rites of Passage

Firstly - sorry that I have confused the timing for Saturday's meeting. It's listed it as 1pm on Eventbrite and 2pm on this Newsletter. We're going with the 1pm time if that's ok but if you can only make 2pm, let me know and I'll keep the group open.

Rituals are ways for groups of people to build and strengthen identities, increase our sense of belonging and a way for us to take part in stories that are bigger than us. Some rituals are religious or cultural and some have been handed down through families as the 'way we've always done it'.

The more Punjabi people I meet, the more I realise that some things I thought were rituals are actually family customs and some family customs have much more complicated roots. Some of these rituals are more about power and control than they are about strengthening communities, and some have a powerful protective effect on the resilience of the people that practice them.

As LGBTQ+ people who have been denied certain rituals for being queer I wonder how our sense of belonging might have been different if these rituals were open to us.

I want to start our discussion on Saturday by thinking about the rituals we value and the ones that are outdated or have excluded us as LGBTQ+ Punjabi people. I also want to think about new rituals that we have had to develop to build new communities.

If you can't join us, but want to contribute to the discussion, send me an email with your thoughts and I'll take them through to the group or social media.

Sign up here - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/on-behalf-of-sarbat-and-taraki-26081441987

Next group - Wednesday 30th of September at 6pm.

Hope to see you soon
Kuljit