Music and Rituals

    Over the years of my life, I have been to different kinds of events like funerals, weddings, graduations, and many others. One thing about all of these events is they had different kinds of music. The graduations had more upbeat and happy music as a day of celebration, each funeral I've been to has had music that was more sad and slow beat, and the weddings have had a mix of both slow and upbeat music depending on the point it was at in the ceremony. 

    My freshman year of high school, I played in the school's orchestra where I played the cello. That year, they took the band and orchestra to graduation and from there, we played different songs as the ceremony continued. I knew that one of the songs would be long only because we had to wait on all of the seniors to walk to their seats, so we had to repeat the same few lines at least 4 times which started to make my arm sore after a while. One thing about the music that we played was it was all upbeat and fun and not all gloomy or anything even though there were tears from parents. One of the songs that we played was our high school's (T.L. Hanna) alma mater. Once we hit the end of the ceremony and the playing of the alma mater, there were a few words spoken from some of the faculty and students that led to the playing of the alma mater. 

While this isn't when the band and orchestra that played together, this is my high schools alma mater and is played around 1:55:00 in the video. 

    

    I have been to a fair share of funerals where it has been mainly people that my parents knew and some family members as well. Each funeral I've been to has normally been the wake first then the actual funeral where there's a series of people that speak. Normally someone close will speak first, followed by someone else or even a few more people. The last person that has normally spoken has been a pastor or someone that is pretty religious overall. The thing about funerals for me is that it can confusing to me in some points because as a christian, it is a sad time because someone has passed but, I always think about how it is a good thing too. I think this way because that person gets to go home to see our father in Heaven. One song that I've heard many times at funerals is the song "Amazing Grace." This is sung because it is a peaceful song that gives us the ability to see the message of how the afterlife is a peaceful place that is accepting to all. 

This is a video of when the "Oak Ridge Boys sing 'Amazing Grace'" at George H.W. Bush's Funeral