Word: ritualism
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...finalists finished up at the rate of two a night. Each night, haggard but happy, the contestants went through a ritual, solemnly crossing the silverware at the places of the two absent finalists who were performing that night, sticking a knife into an erect piece of bread at each place and turning the chairs upside down. At week's end, at last they filed onto the stage, where they heard the verdict of the 13-member panel of judges (including Pianists Artur Rubinstein, Robert Casadesus, Emil Gilels). The winners: first Ashkenazy, second Browning, third Czajkowski...
...Elderly club servants in somewhat moth-eaten vestments...were shuffling about with trays of ritual cocktails being served to what President Eliot once called--and his successors still call--'the society of educated men'. Even the olives and cherries, the orange peel, and toothpicks in the glasses seemed to have taken on moral dignities and a sense of mission which they can never hope to attain in the outer illiterate world where they are at the best the unashamed symbols of candid self-indulgence...
...Elephant Ride. All around them, saffron-robed Brahman priests bustled hither and thither, frequently consulting notebooks to get the complex ritual straight. An occasional argument in stage whispers broke out and was quickly hushed. After the royal couple mounted the throne-at exactly the auspicious moment of 10:43 a-m-the nead Priest, moving carefully so as not to knock off the young King's glasses, placed upon the monarch's head a peaked helmet adorned with bird-of-paradise feathers* and some $2,000,000 worth of precious gems...
...instance, he has been known to frequent special functions of the Signet Society. Aside from the Signet and the daily round of ministerial activity, he finds a great deal of diversion in the traditional clerical sport of fishing. Lately, however, his favorite amusement has come to be the weekly ritual of rocking on the front porch of his Groton home, every Saturday afternoon...
...knelt before a gold and scarlet priedieu, a fanfare of trumpets announced the arrival of her husband-to-be. Tense and nervous, the two sat side by side in the cathedral sanctuary, listening in a hush to a brief sermon by the Bishop of Monaco. Then, in the simple ritual of an ancient faith, they vowed lifelong fidelity each to the other. Rainier slipped the wedding ring halfway onto Grace's finger, and, like many a bride before her, Grace came to his aid and with a sure hand slid the ring firmly home...