2. Christmas Holiday rituals
• During the christmas holidays families celebrate
with relays in swimming pools, water gun fights,
or backyard cricket. Father Christmas/Santa Claus
is usually pictured in a swimming costume and a
cool drink is left out for him by children at night.
School is let out a week prior to Christmas for
summer break and resumes after Australia Day
on January 26
• Homes are not decorated as heavily as in some
cultures but there are two traditional native
plants used for the occasion: The NSW Christmas
bush and Christmas bells.
• Meals include hot turkey, Christmas pudding,
seafood, cold turkey and ham for salads,
Panforte and panettone (Christmas cake), mince
pies, ice cream
.(www.geocities.com/athens/olympus/8559/aust
xmas.htm)
("Australian traditions," )
("Paul eckersley
illustration:," )
3. Rituals in sports
• Australia has a rich sporting culture . They are
renowned world wide for their cricket.
• In cricket , in the first session of each test, it is
a ritual for the Australian players to wear their
baggy green caps; this is a gesture of solidarity
and a salute of their heritage.
• At the end of a victorious series, players
gather (in the middle of the field) to sing their
theme song Underneath the Southern Cross.
• This rituals are important for their sports
because are an important ingredient in
developing the public image of a sport, and
providing the participants at all the various
levels with a common bond.
• For cricket it is very important that many of
the great traditions of the game are
maintained. It provides a sense of order, and
when difficult times are encountered by any
sport there is a tangible support element for
the players and the game itself to look up to.
Flaherty
("The importance of," )
4. Funeral Rituals performed
by Aborigines
• Funeral ceremonies. Another important
time for ceremonies is on the death of a
person, when people often paint
themselves white, cut their own bodies
to show their remorse for the loss of
their loved one, and conduct a series of
rituals, songs and dances to ensure the
person’s spirit leaves the area and
returns to its birth place, from where it
can later be reborn.
• Burial practices vary throughout
Australia, people being buried in parts
of southern and central Australia, but
having quite a different burial in the
north. Across much of northern
Australia, a person’s burial has two
stages, each accompanied by ritual and
ceremony.
5. References
• Australian traditions. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://fits.depauw.edu/mkfinney/culturaleresumes/au
stralia/trads.htm
• Flaherty, C. (n.d.). First blood to the poms as fans hijack
ashes tickets - cricket - sport. Retrieved from
http://www.theage.com.au/news/cricket/english-fans-
hijack-ashes-tickets/2006/06/01/1148956482844.html
• The importance of rituals. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.hindu.com/tss/tss2445/24450340.htm
• Paul eckersley illustration: Father christmas. (n.d.).
Retrieved from
http://www.pauleckersley.co.uk/fatherchristmas.html
