World Day for Water 2006: Water and Culture [Archives:2006/932/Culture]

We plan our cities near water; we bathe in water; we play in water; we work with water. Our economies are built on the strength of water transportation – and the products we buy and sell are all partly water, in one way or another. Our daily lives are built on water, and shaped by it. Without the water that surrounds us – the humidity of the air, the roughness of the river's current, the flow from the kitchen tap – our lives would be impossible.

In recent decades, water has fallen in our esteem. No longer an element to be revered and protected, it is a consumer product that we have shamefully neglected. Eighty percent of our bodies are formed of water, and two thirds of the planet's surface is covered by water: water is our culture, our life.

The theme 'Water and Culture' of WWD 2006 draws attention to the fact that there are as many ways of viewing, using, and celebrating water as there are cultural traditions across the world. Sacred, water is at the heart of many religions and is used in different rites and ceremonies. Fascinating and ephemeral, water has been represented in art for centuries – in music, painting, writing, cinema – and it is an essential factor in many scientific endeavours as well.

Each region of the world has a different way of holding water sacred, but each recognizes its value, and its central place in human lives. Cultural traditions, indigenous practices, and societal values determine how people perceive and manage water in the world's different regions.

Facts and figures about water religions and beliefs

The UNESCO Water Portal Weekly Update No. 122 published in December 2005 the following facts and figures about water religions and beliefs:

Water plays a central role in many religions and beliefs around the world: Source of life, it represents (re)birth. Water cleans the body, and by extension purifies it, and these two main qualities confer a highly symbolic – even sacred – status to water. Water is therefore a key element in ceremonies and religious rites.

Water is often perceived as a god, goddess or divine agency in religions. Rivers, rain, ponds, lakes, glaciers, hailstorms or snow are some of the forms water may take when interpreted and incorporated in cultural and religious spheres.

Religious water is never neutral and passive. It is considered to have powers and capacities to transform this world, annihilate sins and create holiness. Water carries away pollution and purifies both in a physical and symbolical sense. Water is a living and spiritual matter, working as a mediator between humans and gods. It often represents the border between this world and the other.

Islam

For Muslims, water serves above and beyond all for purification. There are three sorts of ablutions:

– The first and most important involves washing the whole body; it is obligatory after intercourse, and recommended before the Friday prayers and before touching the Koran.

– Before each of the five daily prayers, Muslims must bathe their head, wash their hands, forearms and feet. All mosques provide a water source, usually a fountain, for this ablution.

– When water is scarce, followers of Islam use sand to cleanse themselves; this is the third form of ablution.

Buddhism

– Water is used in Buddhist funerals. It is poured and overflows into a bowl placed before the monks and the dead body. As it fills and pours over the edge, the monks recite 'As the rains fill the rivers and overflow into the ocean, so likewise may what is given here reach the departed.'

Christianity

– Water is intrinsically linked to baptism, a public declaration of faith and a sign of welcome into the Christian church. When baptised, one is fully or partially immersed in water, or one's head may simply be sprinkled with a few drops of water. The sacrament has its roots in the Gospel, wherein it is written that Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. In baptism, water symbolizes purification, the rejection of the original sin.

-In the New Testament, 'living water' or 'water of life' represents the spirit of God, that is, eternal life.

Hinduism

– Water is imbued with powers of spiritual purification for Hindus, for whom morning cleansing with water is an everyday obligation. All temples are located near a water source, and followers must bathe before entering the temple. Many pilgrimage sites are found on river banks; sites where two, or even three, rivers converge are considered particularly sacred.

Judaism

– Jews use water for ritual cleansing to restore or maintain a state of purity. Hand-washing before and after meals is obligatory.

– Although ritual baths, or mikveh, were once extremely important in Jewish communities, they are less so now; they remain, however, compulsory for converts.

– Men attend mikveh on Fridays and before large celebrations, women before their wedding, after giving birth and after menstruation.

Shinto

– This religion is based on the veneration of the kami, innumerable deities believed to inhabit nature. Worship of the kami must always begin by a ritual of purification with water.

– This act restores order and balance between nature, humans and the deities.

– Waterfalls are considered sacred in Shinto

Source: www.worldwaterday.org
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