The Encyclopedia of World Religions

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boundaries and a time-frame—sacred space and time—within which certain rules are followed, and people wear certain costumes indicating their role. Each gives observers a chance to participate vicariously in the excitement, and to feel refreshed afterward. Here are some further ways in which games and play parallel the way religion interprets the world, within that sacred space and time frame work. These in part follow Roger Caillois’s book, Man, Play, and Games. Competition in games is like an analogy of the battle of good and EVIL , G OD and S ATAN , in the world. The combination of skill and chance, or divine GRACE or favor, required to be successful in many games is like the need for the same combination in real life, and so gives instruction in dealing with it. Games often entail simulation, or “acting out,” as when children “dress up” or otherwise play games that mimic adult life; religion also tells us to identify with its SAINTS and heroes. Many athletes find that meditation or a state of clear awareness like that taught by Z EN B UDDHISM or the martial arts, living in the moment and acting spontaneously, gives them an edge. Finally, some kinds of play—spin ning around, riding roller-coasters—induce a ver tigo that psychologically can approach ecstasy or trance. Play and religion can learn much from each other.

games, play, and religion Kinds of human activity alternative to work. Often the serious tone assumed by much contemporary religion seems to be at odds with games and play. But religious rite and games come ultimately from similar sources in human culture: the need to “take a break” and express through symbol and experience the full panoply of what it means to be human. Religion may do this by showing that people are more than just working drones, but also have a divine or eternal meaning. So does play, when it shows that people are not meant just to work and contend with serious matters, but also to run, dance, throw balls or dice, find the excitement of competing and pretending, even get into altered states of consciousness by spinning and falling. It would be natural for these two then to begin together, and so they probably did, in ancient religious rites that were also times for dancing, playing, feasting, even loving. There are still reminders of that origin. The Olympic games of ancient Greece began with religious SACRIFICES and had a quasi-religious character ( see G REEK RELIGION ). In Japan, sumo wrestling, tugs of-war, horse-racing, and other competitions can be traced back to S HINTO rituals reflecting in N EW Y EAR FESTIVALS competition between the old year and the new, or different factions of a commu nity. Medieval tournaments began with a cele bration of mass and were supposed to teach the values of chivalry. Let us look in more detail at parallels of religious rite and a game, like a modern Ameri can football or baseball game. Both have definite

Gandhi, Mohandas K. (1869–1948) known as the Mahatma (Sanskrit, “great-souled”); leader of nonviolent resistance to British rule in colonial India and father of Indian independence

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