BOAT DEDICATIONS:
Christening ceremonies were and are meant to bring good luck to the New Ship/Boat, and those who sail on it. Christening a new ship/boat or naming ceremony’s goes back to the early days of sailing ( ceremonies involved in naming and launching ships/boats are based in traditions thousands of years old.) in the early rituals ship christenings of the Vikings were marked by the spilling of blood. In the Middle Ages, religious shrines were on the ship and a libation of wine was offered as the vessel hit the water as a substitute for the earlier blood sacrifice. The wine was poured on the deck appease King Neptune for good luck and a safe voyage. Ancient seafaring peoples, rimming the Mediterranean, launched their ships with rituals having religious overtones. These practices, varying inform as nations and cultures evolved through the centuries, have carried over to the present christening and launching ceremonies. The current tradition throughout the world has been that women christen ships, but it has not always been this way early ceremony’s were performed by officials or local religious men.
HOUSE DEDICATIONS:
Will you just simply move in to your house? After the financing, the planning and building, could you just put in your furniture and call it a home? Is there something missing, is there something you need to add, to make it a home , to make it your sanctuary, to make it whole and complete?
Yes, a ritual , a form of dedication to bless the surroundings that you are about to live in, a “ceremony”.
“May the house wherein I dwell be blessed;
May good thoughts here possess me;
May my path of life be straight and true;
My dreams as here I lie be joyous;
All above, below, about me
May the house I love be hallowed.”