Rituals compared
Sacred dance and music across the world
Why sing and dance for the gods? Music and movement carry worship beyond words: they praise, retell myth, entertain the gods, bring on ecstasy or summon the dead. Some traditions make them the centre of devotion, as in Sikh kirtan or Sufi qawwali; others treat them as offerings or as a way for a god or ancestor to appear. Some, like Gregorian chant, are tightly regulated; others are open and spontaneous.
Spirituals merged African musical influences with Christian song under slavery; qawwali joined Indo-Persian music and poetry. Most of these traditions arose independently as far as is known.
Across the world
| Version | Tradition | What is done, and why |
|---|---|---|
| Bharatanatyam 171 CE | Hinduism | A classical dance of Tamil Nadu expressing Hindu, especially Shaiva, themes, performed for Nataraja; its precursors appear in the Natya Shastra and the Tamil epic Silappatikaram. The dance is offered to the god of dance and conveys religious ideas. |
| Shabad kirtan | Sikhism | Sikhs sing the hymns of the Guru Granth Sahib to the ragas in which the scripture is arranged. Devotional singing of scripture is a central form of Sikh worship. |
| Qawwali 1300 CE | Sufism | Sufi devotional singing performed at shrines in South Asia; its development is attributed to Amir Khusrau, disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi. It aims to bring about remembrance of God and spiritual ecstasy. |
| Gregorian chant 850 CE | Roman Catholicism | Unaccompanied monophonic song in Latin for the liturgy, developed mainly in western and central Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries. It is the sung prayer of the Roman Catholic liturgy; legend credits Pope Gregory I. |
| Nigun | Hasidic Judaism | Groups sing wordless melodies of repeated syllables, a form of Ashkenazi and especially Hasidic vocal music. The nigun can be a mystical form of prayer. |
| Shaker worship dance 1747 CE | Protestantism | Shakers, founded in England in 1747, worshipped with ecstatic movement and later with set dances and gift songs. Their dances and songs were taken as inspired by spiritual revelation. |
| Spirituals 1800 CE | Protestantism | African American Christian songs that merged African musical influences with the experience of slavery. They carried Christian faith through the experience of bondage. The year is approximate: the songs spread in the late 18th century and were identifiable as a genre by the early 19th century. |
| Ghost Dance 1889 CE | Indigenous American Traditions | A circle dance first practised by the Northern Paiute in Nevada in 1889 and spread among many Native peoples. Wovoka taught that proper practice would reunite the living with the dead and bring peace and an end to American expansion. |
| Sun Dance | Lakota Religion | Plains peoples gather for days of dancing, fasting and prayer with drum, sacred fire and pipe; some dancers are pierced and pull against weights. Personal and community sacrifice reaffirms beliefs about the world and the supernatural. |
| Hula kahiko | Hawaiian Religion | Ancient hula, accompanied by chant and traditional instruments, enacts the words of a song; learners were ritually secluded under the goddess Laka. Many hula are religious performances dedicated to Hawaiian gods. |
| Egungun masquerade | Yoruba Religion (Ifá) | Masked, fully costumed dancers appear at Egungun festivals and family rites. The masquerade is the visible presence of the ancestors revisiting the living. |
| Dogon mask dances | Dogon Religion | The Awa mask society dances at the Sigi ritual and at dama ceremonies that end mourning. The dances retell the creation of the world and the coming of death, and close the period of mourning. |
| Cham dance | Vajrayāna Buddhism | Monks perform masked, costumed dances with Tibetan monastic music, often depicting the life of Padmasambhava. Cham is considered meditation and an offering to the gods, bringing merit to those who watch. |
| Kagura 712 CE | Shintō | Ritual dance for the kami, traditionally by a female shaman who may become the god during the dance; the Kojiki tells its mythic origin. Its name means god-entertainment, and it purifies and stirs the spirit. |