Water as Rebirth and Renewal
Water As Rebirth and Renewal
The Pueblo Indians are sometimes called the "Rain Dance People". They would ask the gods for rain because they knew that lack of water would threaten their lives. A lot of religion and religious dancing asked the gods for rain.
Here is a picture of a Zuni (Pueblo) Rain Dance Group:
Here is a movie of a Chinese folk dance troupe performing.
Chinese folk dancing includes rain dances, as seen in this picture of a Spring Rain Dance:
Within the Christian religion, there are also many instances of rebirth, as typified with the death and resurrection of Christ. More specifically, it is said that at the moment Christ died, the sky became dark and it began to rain. This is significant because Christians believe that Christ came to renew all people spiritually, as well as renew the earth. Here is one artist's view of the crucifixion:
But also, more appropriately, water and rebirth are looked at in the sacrament of baptism, which will be discussed later in the cleansing page.
From discovering these pictures of rain dances and related themes of rebirth in Christianity, we can see that water and rebirth show up often in religious practices. It can be argued that religion serves as a means of giving people hope, and so these images of rebirth--new life, eternal life, a forever cyclical relationship of life then death, then life--can really make their respective believers feel that there is hope, that their crops will grow, that their life will go smoothly.
Water as Fertility
Water as Cleansing
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