Music of Diverse Cultures

Cool Stuff #3 Arab World & India

By: Anna J. Micklatcher-Peterson

Arab World Worship

The Arab World is where Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all began. These three religions are monotheistic, which means they believe in only one God.  All three believe in the Abrahamic tradition where God (known as “Yahweh” in Hebrew/Judaism or Christianity and “Allah” in Arabic/Islam) revealed himself to the prophet Abraham.  Yahweh is only one of the many names we call God in the Christian bible.  Jewish believers will not say God’s name “Yahweh” because they believe it is too sacred to be spoken.  For the Christian believer, “Jehovah” is God’s personal name. Alpha, Omega, Beginning, End, Creator, Father, I Am That I Am, Redeemer, Rock, Shepherd, Savior and Lord are some of the many other names for God in the Christian bible.

"I Call Him Lord"

The Collingsworth Family

Israel is the biblical Holy Land of the Jews, Christians and Muslims.  Jerusalem is the location of the most sacred sights of all three of these religions.  The Western Wall or better known as the “Wailing Wall” is where Jews go to pray and weep at the site because of the destruction of the Temple Mount by the Romans in 70 CE.  The Western Wall is the spot closest to the Holy of Holies, which is the central focus of the temple.

Although there are many sites in Israel, especially Jerusalem, that are important to Christians, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is one of the most important sites to Christianity.  It is supposed to be the location of Calvary or Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified and the empty tomb of Jesus, where he was buried and resurrected.  The tomb is enclosed by a 19^th century shrine called the Aedicula.

The Dome of the Rock is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.  The Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam, ascended into heaven from this site.  It is sacred to the Jews because they believe it is the holiest site on the earth.  They believe this is where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac.

     

India “Hindu” Religion

During my education here at Converse College, my daughter and I visited a Hindu temple in Spartanburg along with other Converse students.  Their customs were different from what I am used to.  As soon as we entered, we took our shoes off.  We got there early, so it gave us an opportunity to see the people as they came to worship.

There were two large carpets and a runner carpet in the middle.  The men sat on the left and the women sat on the right carpet.  Some of the elderly ladies sat in chairs to the right.  Those who wanted to pray or leave gifts of fruit, flowers, or money walked up the middle carpet to the altar where all the gods (statues) were.  Rose petals were put around the gods and goddesses.  The fruit was laid on the altar and the money put into an offering box that had a slot on the top.

As the service began, the men spoke and sang in a language I was not familiar with, so I did not understand what they were saying.  They were very courteous though to stop and explain it to all of us what was going on.  The elephant is their main god.  Rama came eight times to India.  They are waiting on the ninth.  It has been thousands of years since he came.  I felt like this part of their custom is similar to Christianity because we are waiting on “Jesus” to come back from thousands of years, also. 

They told us the story of the god child before the service moved outside.  The king wanted to kill his son, so he had his sister who had favor with the fire gods take him into the fire to burn.  Since the god was in the child and all the people were praying for him, the sister of the king who was the child’s aunt burned and the child walked out.

The service moved outside where a huge bonfire was built in memory of this story.  We walked around the bonfire casting all our bad thoughts into the fire and pouring water on it.  This reminded me of Christianity where we repent of our sins and the blood of Christ washes our sins away.  The fire to me was symbolic to hell and the water was symbolic to the blood of Christ or being baptized.  I was also was reminded of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the Book of Daniel (of the Christian bible) where the three Hebrew men are thrown into a fiery furnace and walk out unharmed because they are preserved by a fourth man whom the king sees walking in the flames, “the fourth… like a son of God”.

We came back inside where many put color on their faces.  The children threw the color into the air.  This represented a celebration of spring.

We had a meal together that was a flat bread, green peppers, a spicy sauce to dip the bread in, a yellow sugary sweet and cinnamon type of tea.  While we ate, I had the opportunity to talk to a man about his custom.  He lived in India and his wife was from America.  They had an arranged marriage by their parents before they ever met.  He moved to America when they were married.  They have since divorced.  I asked how his culture felt about divorce.  He said they look at it very badly.  You are an outcast when you divorce.  You have to force people to talk to you.

 

Before we finished our meal, some of the fruit that had been offered to the gods and goddesses was given to us to eat.  The coconut that was burned in the fire had been cut up into small pieces and offered to us to eat.  I felt like this part of their custom was like my custom of taking Communion in the Christian faith.

Islam

There was something I wanted to add to what we learned about Muslim belief pertaining to their pilgrimage to Mecca.  Muslims try to go on this journey at least once in their life, depending on their circumstances.  As we learned in class, this is called a “Hajj.”  What I found to be amazing about their culture and belief is that they can only take this journey if they are “debt free.”