When I've moved into new homes, the closest thing to a ceremonial ritual I've practiced is a pizza dinner on the floor. But whether by custom or religious faith, many do something more to get their new place off to the best start. Here are a few ceremonies that are practiced:
- Jewish: Once moved in, a Chanukat Habayit is held to make the house into a home. This involves gathering everyone outside the door, where they meditate upon good blessings for the home. The home's owner hangs a mezuzah at the entry, and bread is served with salt (symbolizing a life of holiness), oil (sustenance), and/or honey (sweetness). There is singing and a blessing is said over the house, making it the sacred space of the home.
- Buddhist: Khuan Ban Mai is the blessing of a newly-constructed house. It involves friends, family, and Buddhist monks gathering in the morning and finishing around noon, when food is offered and gifts are given to the monks. During the ceremony, holy water is sprinkled throughout the house and thread is entwined around the wrist of each household member and the Buddha of the home's shrine.
- Hindu: In India, the Hindu housewarming, called the Griha Pravesh, marks the first entry into the home. The exact date is set by the fortune desired (wealth or children, for example). Only after the Griha Pravesh is complete can the family move into the home.
- Christian: A formal house blessing is performed by a pastor or a priest. Christian scrupture also states that a layperson may lead the dedication. Prayers are said and God is asked to be present in the home. Food prepared by the household is often served to guests and the clergy performing the ceremony.
Do you practice any rituals when setting up a new home? Are they like any of the rituals described above? If so, please add to our descriptions or tell us about your own practices in the comments below!
Sources: This Ritual LIfe, Temple of Thai, India Parenting, Inspire Magazine
Image: Temple of Thai
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This isn't a religious ritual-- but it makes me feel like I'm claiming the space. Before I move anything into a new space, I open up all the windows, burn my favorite incense (dragon's blood resin), and give it a good cleaning.
I once owned a home that I swear was haunted. Strange things started breaking almost from the moment I closed on the house. A friend suggested a Native American ritual, the burning of sage while apologizing to the spirits occupying the house for my intrusion. It seemed to do the trick and I'm going to do it in my next home, too.
Off-topic, I love those oranges.
Never bring an old broom into a new home!
Athiest: Sex in every room
I have not done this but I am going to when I move in to my new house: Bring a jar of rice, sugar and salt in the new house and put it in the pantry for prosperity. Burn incense in every part of the room to drive away negative energy.
I've burnt sage in every new place I've lived... nothing bad has happened in any of the homes since moving in, so I'm assuming that it works :)
Moving again in a few weeks, so I'll do it at the new apt, as well.
Another vote for sage, carried from room to room in a fresh bowl of sand (pretty and safe...).
A related ritual: we buried a little St. Joseph statue upside down in the ground in front of our old house that we were selling -- and it sold in 2 mos. this past spring for only a little below asking! We were tipped to this ritual by my wife's (Jewish) family, so now we have a little altar to this plastic Catholic saint on our mantlepiece in thanks for our good fortune in this miserable market.
That's not to say I'm a "believer" -- but a ritual takes you out of your routine and clears a space to focus and orient your attention to the bigger things in life - your hopes, your fears, your higher aspirations. That little plastic saint shouldered a huge heap of our fears... and every time I look at him I think about how lucky we are. It's a good thing to remember....
I would be careful about using another culture's rituals. You run the risk of appropriation.
@ELFay, Thanks to your comment, I just read the Wikipedia entry for cultural appropriation. Interesting!
"That's not to say I'm a "believer" -- but a ritual takes you out of your routine and clears a space to focus and orient your attention to the bigger things in life - your hopes, your fears, your higher aspirations. That little plastic saint shouldered a huge heap of our fears... and every time I look at him I think about how lucky we are. It's a good thing to remember..."
very true
"I would be careful about using another culture's rituals. You run the risk of appropriation."
This sounds like a warning, so I'm just curious....what would happen? :)
I'm with Arkay. I love incorporating rituals in my life and often make up my own. It's a way of focusing on something that you want to accomplish. I think it is our human nature to interpret things in any way that is appealing to us.
Sage, sand, and the ringing of two little bells.
The house has to be very quiet.
Make sure to get in all the corners.
The only bad thing is that it leaves a smell very similar to that of pot and lasts for a full day. Probably not a problem for many readers on this site?
And when the kids were little, we'd have carry-out pizza on our mattress, in the living room, because that's where our friends dumped everything when they helped us move.
Yeah, we were young.
The first thing I did when I moved in was clean clean clean, open all the windows, burned incense and sage, and buried 4 small quartz crystals around the house (NSEW).
It sounds weird but I did it not so much to keep away or chase anything, but moreso to "bond" with the house. I told the land that it's free, and though I paid to live there I don't own it; hat I am merely the caretaker.
Clean thoroughly.
Light incense and walk throughout the house with it making sure to trace the door frame of each room before entering.
Say a short prayer in each room.
I don't know where I got it from, it just seemed like a good thing to do.
Every space I move into is dirty, so I clean it, empty it, and air it out, but for me it's more a routine developed out of necessity than a ritual.
Even though my military family became highly experienced movers, we never did anything for ourselves, but someone always brought us a new loaf of bread and a jar of salt, which I have started taking to my friends as they settle in. Traditions are nice.
Well, mjs7640's remark that burning sage smells like pot explains that strange odor in my building's hallways: my neighbors are purifying their spaces again.
Personally, I'm not a believer in all that 'spiritual' stuff, but the concept doesn't only apply to people's homes. I heard of an organization in which, a few days after the Board canned an inept ED who had demoralized everyone with her profanity-laced tirades, the surviving staffers (known informally among themselves as the Flying Monkeys) called in a New Age priestess or something to neutralize the lingering bad mojo in her former office.
I had my priest bless my home during the housewarming party for the first home I purchased and my current home.
It was fantastic and quite organic. The people who wanted to participate in the blessing followed to each room and the balcony for prayers and the sprlinkling of holy water.
The rest of the people continued to enjoy each others company and the food and my new home.
Don't forget to do a departing ritual in the place your leaving.
One person's appropriation is another person's bricolage.
Well, I know my mom has always went into each room and prayed and threw (sea)salt water in every corner of the house. Then I was given the task of pouring three piles of (sea) salt at each entrance. I suppose it is to keep the bad out of the house. Though I distinctly remember a few houses where that didn't work but I think it was my father's ghosts haunting us not so much the house.
The most I've done with a haunted dorm room was to request that they help with my homework or leave--sadly they left.
I will probably do a sage burning as well as a bowl of sea salt water and praying whenever I get the chance to move again. The boyfriend likes to put up every holy relic that he has above doors.
My husband and I invited the parish priest we knew best to dinner, after which we asked him to bless our new home. He led us in prayer before blessing our marriage and home. The brief, simple, quiet ritual took place as we three stood in the dining room. He died many years later, many years ago. We remember his kindness and dignity with warm respect. His blessing of our home, in which we still live, remains especially meaningful to us.
My boyfriend and I usually keep it simple -- get all of our crap in, crash on whatever piece of furntiure made the trek and order thai food.
His aunt however introduced me to her family's Ukranian tradition when she came to our last housewarming. It involves giving the new home owner (/renter) bread, salt, wine, and sugar. Bread -- that this house may never know hunger, salt -- that life here may always have flavor, sugar -- that your love in this home may always be sweet, wine -- that there will always be joy.
She took some liberties with the gifts (zucchini bread, fancy hawaiian salt, godiva chocolates) but the idea remains the same. I've decided I'm adopting that as my own tradition because it was just that lovely!
"Scripture", not "Scrupture.
I purchased my first house a year ago. Built in 1910, it had be rehabbed before I moved in and kiddie-corner to me is a site where Native American bones were found. I cleaned the house really well and did a sage blessing from top to bottom w/ my brother (roommate) and repeated a blessing. There has yet to be a problem and it's helped calm my nerves.
Um, am I the only one who can't see commenters' names?
And why would you do a ritual attached to a particular religion if you don't actually believe in the religion? If, for example, you're a Christian, how does it make sense within your theology to burn sage? I guess I must have missed that in the Bible . . . .
Anyway, atheist here, no interest in rituals.
In every home that my husband and I have shared, we burn sage and "seal" the doors and windows from negative energy. I was a bit skeptical at first but every home that we have lived in has been a calming sanctuary for us and our friends. In fact, we're off to sage our new apartment right now!
CLEAN. Especially the fridge and all the cupboards and drawers in built-in cabinetry. Then move in all the crap, get the boxes in the appropriate rooms, and then have a pizza party on the floor to thank all of our friends for helping us move. Or tacos - I made tacos the first time, 'cause I was moving in with my boyfriend, so he already had some kitchen-y things.
I never seem to have time to do much else. I like the bell ringing idea. There's also Northern European tradition about blessing thresholds. I've always loved the bread and salt hospitality ritual. Someday I will move into my dream home and have the time to truly claim it!
Another way to claim the space? Putting up art on the walls. Alas, all of my art is languishing in my parents' basement, halfway across the country, so until I go out and get it (way too expensive to ship), my house is officially un-claimed. With blank walls. Despite the fact that we've lived here for over a year. Oh well... lol.
I think that a ritual helps, but I do feel funny about using other people's beliefs for this one thing but not as my own faith - I find decorations with religious items highly worrying unless they are that person's religion.
It's taking the nice fun bits & avoiding the fasting & the like...
@NewInDupont that sounds like a nice ritual. I'll do that in the future.
My family is Ojibwe & Odawa. My mom always does the smudging ritual when I move into a new apartment. Not sure if it does anything, but it makes everything smell nice like sage for a while!
A previous occupant smeared some unidentifiable gunk on every single window lock in my house. It was put into the cracks and I never could remove it completely. That apparent home safety ritual may be related to the surprising number of people who practice santeria rituals in their own homes here even though they're not serious believers, at least not openly.
@ STH
"And why would you do a ritual attached to a particular religion if you don't actually believe in the religion?"
Do you derive pleasure from, or feel emotions while watching a fictional movie or book? You don't have to believe in the absolute of something for it to benefit you.
I am an Atheist too. Have been all my life, so that doesn't really disqualify you from being able to partake in your spiritual sensibilities.
@apteryx: Love this idea.
@STH: You might consider apteryx "atheist ritual". ;)
In Turkey, before moving to a house, we bring first, sugar, salt and flour to the new house. Salt for abundance, sugar for happiness, the third one I don't remember now. I like this type pagan rituals.
I was raised with the tongue-in-cheek belief to always buy a new broom for a new house; I've followed that one.
I also use incense to clear space and I've been known to mark all the doors and windows with a symbol to "keep out bad luck." I have mixed feelings on the efficacy, but I find the ritual comforting.
(As a note, my boyfriend says the same thing about locking doors that don't have deadbolts: probably pointless, but comforting.)