The ritual process
It is not only sacrificial rituals that reenact events from mythical time to recreate it all again. Actually, quite many rituals do. It can be as lengthy dramas that act out a course of mythical events, or it can be a brief version of a single mythical feature. In the 1800s, people of Jutland in Denmark would fight adders ritually, by catching one and pronouncing the words of the Bible: ”woman’s sperm shall crush the serpent's head!" This curse was pronounced over the serpent at the expulsion from paradise.
However, even without myths, rituals can re-set and start a new beginning by the process their objects have to go through. To understand the process, it is important to identify the ritual object, the “who” or “what” which the ritual aims at changing or maintaining. There may be several objects and even a person, who is active, in the ritual. According to the French ethnographer, Arnold van Gennep (1873-1957), the ritual process can be divided into three phases: the separation phase, the liminal phase and the incorporating phase.

What is a ritual?
A ritual is an act aiming at changing or maintaining something, not by actual intervention, but only by way what it says, represents or symbolizes.

The three phases of rites of passage
1 )The separation phase:
The ritual object is separated from its normal context and made into something special. If a person is going to be initiated, it can be done by isolating him/her, let him/her put on a special garment and take away from him/her special characteristics and status symbols. A purification may also be part of the preparations for the later “recreation” of the ritual object. By this it builds up to ”the liminal phase.”

2) The liminal phase (from Latin “limen”, a “ threshold “):
Here the ritual object is about to cross the threshold to a new state of being. S/he is therefore in neither his old nor his new shape or status. S/he floats, unattached, without an inner, permanent structure. S/he is extremely vulnerable, but also very susceptible to the change and final consolidation, which the ritual aims at. The ritual may choose to show this strange mode as wild disorder (such as a carnival or New Year fun) or as extreme ritual control of even the slightest details. Both ways will demonstrate a critical condition, which might go terribly wrong, but at the same time, it is exactly this dangerous venture that makes it possible to change and recreate the object and move on to the “incorporation phase”. 

3) The Incorporation Phase:
The object is integrated in his/hers new context and assumes his/her new status. It shows that the object and the world have now returned to a new but also normal state of being. This can be dramatized by letting the new initiate receive objects to display his new status, by letting him into the group of old initiates, and by lifting the ritual control.

The process may take place over a long or very short time. The passage between the phases can be defined sharply or happen gradually and almost imperceptibly, and not all phases are always equally strong or have the same distinct emphasis put on them.
In ritual analysis, though, it is important to try to identify what expresses separation, liminality and incorporation to understand the dynamics of the ritual. Then it becomes clear how the object is transformed and renewed through the ritual process.
A good example is the oldest known rites from the Christian baptism. Even today, baptism is usually the initiation ritual to incorporate new members of the church. Since the old days, the church has been seen as the body of Christ (Latin: corpus), and becoming a member means to become one of the limbs of this body. The word incorporation, which we now use for the last phase of the ritual process, reflects the same way of thinking. In the old days, there was no infant baptism. Candidates were usually adults, who wished to become members. That was possible on Easter night. On Maundy Thursday, they were to purify themselves, and on Good Friday, they must fast. On Saturday, the bishop gathered them and made them kneel for him so that he could exorcise all evil spirits from them with an incantation. Then he blew into their faces and made the sign of the cross over their chests, foreheads, eyes and ears. The same night, the candidates had to keep vigil, absorbed in learning the sacred “knowledge” and in prayer. Finally, at the crowing of the cock on Easter morning, the baptism took place. The candidates were stripped naked, the women had to remove all jewelry and let their hair hang loose, "that nothing foreign together with a foreign spirit should descend into the bath of rebirth with them."  At the same time, the bishop consecrated the oil, with which they were to be anointed before and after the baptism. After renouncing Satan, they were lowered into the water three times, and each time asked to confess the common articles of faith.
Anointed, dried and dressed again, the newly baptized persons could finally enter the church, where the bishop laid his hand on them, thanking God for their rebirth and union with the church. Then they participated in the Communion.
As described above, sources from 200 - to 500 AC allow us to follow a complete ritual process with a phase of separation, during which the candidates are purified and marked; and after a fasting period, they re-enter normal life. The ritual control increases with Exorcism and signs of the cross, and culminates in clear liminality on the night between Saturday and Easter Sunday, when the situation is critical:  they must keep vigil and pray, and in the actual bath of re-birth, all foreign influences are eliminated.  In addition, the phase of incorporation is clear: The rise from the baptismal bath is a rise to the Easter Festival, which celebrates the resurrection of Christ. Through the Holy Communion, the new converts become part of Christ. Also socially, they are incorporated in the community with other baptized Christians. 
Such initiation rites or rites of passage can be found in virtually all religions and cultures. In Judaism and Islam, the circumcision of boys serves the same purpose. Among North African Muslims, it is widely believed that circumcision serves to turn the boy into a man. But the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has pointed out that the real 'social magic' in this ritual is the line it draws between the ones, who have been through the ritual, men and boys, and the ones who have not - girls and women. Together with other factors, the ritual contributes to maintaining a society, highly segregated as regards gender. However, this ideological gender effect or “social magic” would probably not have been there if it had not been for the effect the ritual is claimed to have.

Pilgrimage is one of the lengthy ritual processes. Obviously, the phase of separation begins when the pilgrim, who is the object as well as the performer of the ritual, leaves his home and his familiar surroundings. The liminal phase is the detached way of life and the often dangerous wandering about during the pilgrimage, and the incorporation is the return with a new and higher status.

Didactical proposals

Task 1:
In this task, students have to reflect upon the concept ritual - with focus at the rites of passage. Use the links below or find related videos (rituals from different religions). The exercise can be a group work. Every group then gets a ritual they have to analyse and present

Other proposed task: Rituals for every part of your life

In this task, the students learn about different rituals. In many religions, there are rituals for every stage through life. The purpose is finding information and present it. Divide the class into these groups:

1. Rituals about purity and purification
2. Rituals about being born
3. Rituals about being adult
4. Rituals about marriage
5. Rituals about death and funerals
6. Rituals about food

Task:

1. Find information about the type of ritual you are responsible for
2. Find pictures from different religions (2-3 religions) showing the type of ritual you are responsible for
3. Is there any resemblance in this type of ritual in different religions
4. Insert information (text and pictures) in a PowerPoint
5. Present in class
6. Discuss in class how and if you can characterize a religion from the type of rituals in the religion.

Link to other modules

The students can analyze other rituals using the theory on the three phases of rites of passage, see for example:

"Religions and the Body"
sec.2  (Upanayana: The Sacred Thread) 
and sec. 3 (Body in Judaism, Record of a circumcision ceremony in US)

"Introduction to  Hinduism",
Sec. 9 " Upayana rite [image]"

For more Information on the rituals showed in the videos refer to these Digital Modules:
-"Religions and the Body"
sec.  5, 6

-"Introduction to  Hinduism"
sec. 9

-"Introduction to Judaism II: Themes"
sec. 4

- "Introduction to Buddhism II: Diffusion in the world"
sec. 4
(for more information on Shinto)