Unmoored: Ritual Wanderings and Ritual Bricolage in the Pandemic Era

Over the past year, we have gained a keener ritual awareness. As the tragedies and profound challenges of the pandemic have unfolded during 2020 and 2021, popular and academic writers alike have lamented the collective loss of ritual, in both religious and secular contexts, that has come as a consequence. Even before the tragedies surrounding Covid-19 disrupted our lives, we saw a surge of popular interest in ritual. Books such as Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, and James Clear’s Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones have been New York Times bestsellers. However, with the onset of Covid-19, these discussions took on a more urgent tone. Whereas before, the focus was largely upon employing ritual patterns in service of self-improvement, the emphasis switched to discussions about how to intentionally use ritual to regain a sense of control. For example, in America magazine, Susan Bigelow Reynolds observed significant ritual changes.