Rain Dances and Prayer
In many societies around the world, rain dances and other rituals have been used to attempt to increase rainfall. Some Native Americans used rain dances extensively. European examples include the Romanian ceremonies known as paparuda and caloian. Some United States farmers also attempt to bring rain during droughts through prayer. These rituals differ greatly in their specifics, but share a common concern with bringing rain through ritual and/or spiritual means. Typical of these ceremonies was then-governor of Georgia Sonny Perdue's public prayer service for rain, in 2007.
Read more about this topic: Rainmaking
Famous quotes containing the words rain, dances and/or prayer:
“Real kindness seeks no return;
What return can the world make to rain clouds?”
—Tiruvalluvar (c. 5th century A.D.)
“When I wrote of the women in their dances and wildness, it was a mask,
on their mountain, gold-hunting, singing, in orgy,
it was a mask; when I wrote of the god,
fragmented, exiled from himself, his life, the love gone down with song,
it was myself, split open, unable to speak, in exile from myself.
...
No more masks! No more mythologies!”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)
“Some pray to marry the man they love,
My prayer will somewhat vary;
I humbly pray to Heaven above
That I love the man I marry.”
—Rose Pastor Stokes (1879–1933)