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Patrick Fallon

Dr. Whittemore

ANT 232-01: Religion & Culture

24 September 2012

The sounds of a busy city are at work. Many cars are passing up and down the

street, people walking up and down just to get home from their long workday, and the views of

beautiful architecture stand of a country gleaming with royalty in their blood. These are the

sights and sounds of London, England, a country who for many centuries have dominated the

European world. There were thirty of us, including myself and the tour guide in our school group

spending time there for our spring break. As we were coming from Trafalger Square and walking

down the Mall to Buckingham Palace, I hear the bells of Big Ben at the strike of 11:00am. At the

time, I was not aware that something magnificent was about to take place.

As we walk down, a plethora of people are advancing towards the house of the

royal family. Taking a stop at a small military camp, I saw soldiers dressed in the iconic red,

black, and gold uniform of the royal guards to the Queen. Arranged in single file, they marched

as a single unit playing their instruments to a company march. The leader of the unit stood tall on

her horse instructing that everyone was to stand back allowing room for the soldiers to pass

through. As this was happening, all traffic came to a halt until the procession was over. Once the

last unit of guards had left the base camp, tourists, even local Londoners raced to Buckingham

Palace to catch a glimpse of the changing of the guards. Walking down the streets ourselves, we

can imagine this event compared to our local parades that occur on either St. Patricks Day or

Memorial Day. I can remember our tour guide explaining, in a muffled pitch due to the amount

of noise and cheer around us, that this ceremony goes on three to four times a day. Each one of

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them is different in their own right. I was lucky to have seen the largest of all the ceremonies that

occur throughout the day.

Looking back at what I had seen that day, I began to wonder what each of these

ceremonies were and how distinct they are from each other. There are three different types of

change, with one of them occurring at Windsor Castle. The one I had seen on 11:00am that day

was the changing of the Queens Life Guard at Horse Guards Parade. Changing of the guards has

always been a part of English history and tradition and is still to this day. As a comparison to

religious ceremonies, Justin Barrett, author of the ethnography Why Would Anyone Believe In

God, these types of ceremonies fall in the category of a repeated ceremony. The only difference

between the changing of the guard ceremonies and any other repeated ceremony that is

religiously based is in terms of its emotionality. From what I have seen first-hand, most of the

people that have shown great excitement towards the celebration itself were tourists and maybe

about three-quarters of the British people who spectate these events daily throughout their life.

The British are known for pride in their country for what it stands for. There are many places,

such as the Tower of London and St. Pauls Cathedral, where this was shown. This suggests that

although it may seem that it is a highly emotive event, a trait that is seen in one-off rituals, and is

an event that creates emotions and impressions of the historical background of England it is still

part of the norm of British society.

The impression I got of the ceremony was strong. As I was watching the event, I

began hearing in my head the sound of one of Britains most iconic patriotic pieces, Rule

Britannia. It became clear to me that I was participating in a culture that is not my own. I felt

like I was part of the celebration as a British citizen, more like being enculturated to it. Once the

guards entered the front of Buckingham Palace, the crowd was cheering with excitement and

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running towards the front gates. I joined in rushing with them to find that they were also going to

play some numbers before the actual exchange itself. It was somewhat strange and a bit

humorous that one of the tunes they played was the theme from James Bond. Going back to

the ideas of one-off ceremonies, Barrett mentions this about how the mind works in a one-off

ceremony. Having minds that perpetually seek to understand why things happen as they do, the

peculiarity of these events prompt nonconscious and conscious searching for the meaning of the

event. (Barrett 66) Why are these traditions still met today when there are police forces in

London that take care of the royal family and its citizens around them? The answer is its history.

Britains history has existed for so long and many of its secrets are still with us that the general

public did not want to know. The traditions of the horse guards, foot guards and many others are

what keeps those secrets alive as well as protect it from harm. During the ceremony I felt high

emotional intensity with knowing that this was a historic event lasting so many years to protect

the royal family and for all that they have. In the meantime afterwards, I shared our American

beliefs with the tour guide native to Britain. She was intrigued by our culture, but still

emotionally and enthusiastically faithful to hers. With these changing of the guard ceremonies, it

is a sense that there is a commitment to the community of their history principles. These are

indeed principles that are strong enough for British people to behave in such a fashion in many

other inexplicable ways.