|
In Christian tradition the Churching of Women is the ceremony wherein a blessing is given to mothers after recovery from childbirth. The ceremony includes thanksgiving for the woman's survival of childbirth, and is performed even when the child is stillborn, or has died unbaptized. Although the ceremony itself contains no elements of ritual purification, it was related to Jewish practice as noted in , where women were purified after giving birth. In light of the New Testament, the Christian ritual draws on the imagery and symbolism of the Purification of the Virgin . Although some Christian traditions consider her to have borne Christ without incurring impurity, she went to the Temple in Jerusalem to fulfill the requirements of the Law of Moses. At one time the rite was practiced in both the Eastern and the Western churches. The custom is first mentioned in the pseudo-Nicene Arabic canons. The religious ceremony has largely fallen out of practice in the West, but continues to remain in some of the Eastern Churches. ==History== The custom of blessing a woman after childbirth recalls the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary mentioned in Luke 2:22. The Jewish practice was based on Leviticus 12:1-8, which specified the ceremonial rite to be performed in order to restore ritual purity. It was believed that a woman becomes ritually unclean by giving birth, due to the presence of blood and/or other fluids at birth. This was part of ceremonial, rather than moral law.〔(Pope, Charles. "Lost Liturgies File: The Churching of Women", Archdiocese of Washington )〕 Natalie Knödel noted that the idea that a woman who has recently given birth is to be set apart and then re-introduced into religious and social life by means of a special rite is not a specifically Western, let alone Christian, idea. Such rites are found in a number of cultures. All things having to do with birth and death are understood as somehow sacred.〔(Knödel, Natalie. "The Thanksgiving of Women after Childbirth, commonly called The Churching of Women", University of Durham. 1995 )〕 Paul V. Marshall suggests that in an agricultural society this could have been a simple means of protecting a new mother from resuming work too soon after giving birth.〔Marshall, Paul V., ''Prayer Book Parallels. The public services of the Church arranged for comparative study'', New York: The Church Hymnal Corporation, 1989〕 Toward the middle of the first millennium adult baptism and baptismal formation declined. Infant mortality was high and baptizing a child became important. This often meant that the mother could not attend the baptism, since she was often still recuperating from birth. The time of recuperation, called “lying in”, lasted from two to six weeks, and was often a welcome time of rest for women. During the lying in, women were exempt from attending Mass on Sundays and from fasting. Since they had missed the baptism which generally included a blessing for the parents, when new mothers returned to church for Mass a ritual of welcome and blessing developed.〔(Kasten, Patricia. "Why women stayed away from church after a birth", Catholic News Service, February 1, 2015 )〕 The rite became the subject of a good deal of misunderstanding as many commentators, in describing its scriptural antecedents, did not explain clearly the concept of "ritual purity" nor distinguish it from common practice.〔 As a blessing given to mothers after recovery from childbirth, it is not a precept, but a pious and praiseworthy custom, dating from the early Christian ages.〔(Schulte, Augustin Joseph. "Churching of Women." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 7 Apr. 2013 )〕 Pope Gregory as early as the 6th Century protested any notion that defilement was incurred by childbirth. David Cressy points out that the ceremony acknowledged the woman's labours and the perils of childbirth. As the conclusion of a month of privilege after childbirth, women looked forward to churching as a social occasion, and a time to celebrate with her friends. For men it marked the end of a month during which they had to take care of the domestic affairs, commonly referred to as the "gander month".〔(Cressy, David. "Purification, Thanksgiving and the Churching of Women in Post-Reformation England", ''Past and Present'', No. 141, 1993 )〕 In thirteenth century France the rite focused on the woman's role as wife and mother.〔Reider, Paula M. ''On the Purification of Women: Churching in Northern France (1100 -1500), Palgrave Macmillan, 2006〕 The Second Plenary Council of Baltimore held in October, 1866, noted that churching after child-birth had been generally neglected in the United States, and was to be insisted upon,〔(Fanning, William. "Plenary Councils of Baltimore." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 7 Apr. 2013 )〕 and prohibited the practice of churching in places in which Mass is not celebrated.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「churching of women」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|