Coronavirus and rituals.

Byline: Faizan Rashid

Rituals constitute an essential part of our daily life. The definition accommodates all people, religious or not. Every person has their own set of daily rituals along with the religiously oriented kind. Physical interactivity between people is one of the foundations of most interactions even within this technologically driven world. But with the recent advent of the Coronavirus people are wary, rightfully so, of the dangers that any physical interaction would entail.

Rituals constitute an essential part of our daily life. The definition accommodates all people, religious or not. Every person has their own set of daily rituals along with the religiously oriented kind. Physical interactivity between people is one of the foundations of most interactions even within this technologically driven world.

But with the recent advent of the Coronavirus people are wary, rightfully so, of the dangers that any physical interaction would entail. All around the world, people have shut themselves in their homes. But when the majority of the global population follows a certain creed, the sharply colored clash between faith and practice shines anew.

Scientists are racing towards finding a vaccine from this pandemic while health professionals and necessary workers try to control the situation on ground. Religion is the solace of first resort for billions grappling with a pandemic for which scientists, governments and the secular world seem to, so far, have few answers.

With both face masks and leadership in short supply, dread over the Coronavirus has driven the globes faithful even closer to religion and ritual. But what one recommends for the mind may not be what's best for the body or everyone else's.

Communal gatherings are a keystone of most religious practices. People all over the world are running afoul of public health officials warning that mass gatherings and the congregation would exacerbate the spread of the virus.

For every view there are those who don't see the same way, exceptions to each strict fully enforced social distancing rule. In Myanmar, a prominent Buddhist monk announced that a dose of one lime and three palm seeds - no more, no less - would confer immunity. And in Texas, the preacher Kenneth Copeland...