Purification

A ceremony of ritual cleansing either from spiritual impurity (sin) or physical impurity is common to most religions and may involve sacrifice, washing, purging, anointing, sprinkling, burning or cutting. Such cleansing may take place subsequent to exposure to some source of physical or ritual uncleanness such as bloodshed (whether shedding the blood of another in battle or otherwise, hunting and killing an animal, giving birth, or menstruating), death, birth, or contact with a place or person considered unclean; or prior to some special rite. Infringement of a taboo, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, may render an individual dangerous to himself and to others until he has been ritually cleansed of its effect. The danger of remaining unclean may include being driven mad, pollution of food, illness or death. Sometimes more than one person, for example a whole village, may be affected, as in the death of a headman, when complex rituals may be required of the whole community.

Means of purification may be: cleansing the body with water; anointing it with oil; burning incense; jumping through smoke and/or over fire. Blood, although also a source of uncleanness, is used in many cultures for purifying the unclean; and sacrifice, whether of animals or (sometimes) humans is a widespread phenomenon. The transferring of guilt to a sacrificial victim or scape goat (as in the Old Testament) is also common. The prime example of this is the crucifixion of Christ, re-enacted in the taking of Holy Communion: "This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins"; "our souls washed through his most precious blood". [Lustration]

, originally a particular ceremony of purification and driving-out of evil conducted every five years in ancient Rome, is the name now applied to any ritual purification involving a slow, solemn religious procession. This is also an example of ritual purification on the basis of the calendar, other examples being ceremonial cleansing at New Year in many present-day cultures (Peru, Mexico, China) and previously in ancient Babylon and by North American Indians.