Secular Culture and Entertainment
In addition to overt or primarily religious organizations operating directly as part of the diverse Christian denominations of Mariposa, there are many secular or ecumenical organizations the civic-minded resident may join. The Young Men’s Christian Association offers a physical and spiritual outlet for Mariposians, especially those like bank clerk Peter Pupkin who moved to the town from away.
Organized amateur sports are very popular in Mariposa. One may join the Ball Club, Lacrosse Club, Curling Club, Mariposa Canoe Club, Snow Shoe Club, and the Mariposa Tennis Club (behind Dr. Gallagher's house). Foot races are organized on Indian Island during Mariposa Belle excursions. Sleigh riding, sport fishing and duck hunting are also very popular solitary or small group pastimes.
Music and dancing are incorporated into many secular activities, since these are often very circumscribed if not outright banned in a religious environment (except for the Salvation Army, which makes music a central part of its ministry). The uniformed town band, with at least ten members, plays its coronets every Wednesday in the municipal park. The Mariposa Quartette, the Oddfellows’ Brass Band and the Knights of Pythias band are also active. The fundraising Firemen's Ball is the highlight of the winter social season, eclipsing even the Oyster Supper of Knights of Pythias.
The usual fraternal societies were active in the town: Freemasons, Oddfellows, Foresters. More regional or local cross-denominational or secular organizations are: Knights of Pythias (which has Dean Drone as chaplain), Sons of Temperance (whose members sometimes stray) and The Girls’ Friendly Society (since they are barred from the Pythians).
Read more about this topic: Mariposa (fictional Town)
Famous quotes containing the words secular and/or culture:
“... the generation of the 20’s was truly secular in that it still knew its theology and its varieties of religious experience. We are post-secular, inventing new faiths, without any sense of organizing truths. The truths we accept are so multiple that honesty becomes little more than a strategy by which you manage your tendencies toward duplicity.”
—Ann Douglas (b. 1942)
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)