Notes from the North 7 2024



What is a ritual? The dictionary says it is an act or a ceremony which takes place at a specific date or time and follows a prescribed form or order. It is most often carried out in a group or public setting but not always. So what might turn a repeated act into a ritual I wonder? The question occurs to me because the organisers of the Edinburgh Festival have chosen ‘Rituals that Unite Us’ as the theme for this year’s Festival. Perhaps they mean it as an indirect response to last year’s theme of ‘Where do we go from here?’  

Using the dictionary definition, should we call the applause at the end of a show a ritual act? It certainly seems to unite the audience but I don’t think it merits the word ritual. Rituals are more than a practice, more than a habit. They seem to me to have a strong connection to belief, superstition, veneration, propitiation, like the ceremonial lowering of a flag, the sounding of the last post, the blessing of a new baby… 

 

It is true that over the seventy-seven years it has been held, the Edinburgh Festival has developed some practices which do meet the dictionary definition. For example, the moment in the Military Tattoo when the castle falls dark, leaving only a piper spot-lit on the heights. And there is also the church service in St Giles Cathedral to mark – to consecrate? - the opening of the Festival. 

 

St Giles Cathedral or High Kirk if you prefer, happens to be a prime venue in the Festival this year. It is featuring a still-developing audio project, 900 Voices, which celebrates 900 years of Christian ministry on the same patch of land at the top end of the high street where the church has stood since it was first built in 1124. 



The pamphlet you get when you visit tells you that 900 Voices is ‘a sound installation exploring notions of belonging, connection and community, blending voices from hundreds of Edinburgh citizens’. As it also points out, ‘to talk about belonging it has been useful to talk about not belonging too. You may hear fragments of personal experiences of prejudice and other challenges as well as insights into belonging and connection.’  

 

The church echoes with the sound of voices from dozens of speakers positioned on pillars and in corners; people sit or stand; some wander about; little children clamber over chairs. The voices merge into one another or ring out in unison. The experience feels both secular and sacred, individual and collective. 

 

The team responsible for the recordings will be making more through September to November. If you live in Edinburgh and want to get involved you can get in touch by email to hello@900voices.org.

 

How did Saint Giles, a 7th century Greek hermit living with his tame deer in the woods near Nîmes in the south of France, end up as the patron saint of a Scottish church? 

St Giles, his hand pierced by an arrow intended for his deer.

The answer seems to be simply that Giles was a hugely popular saint in medieval times. He crops up on churches and in the names of towns and villages all over Europe and even very occasionally in the Middle East, as a result of the Crusades. He was/is the patron saint of lepers, the lame, the mentally ill, hermits, horses, outcasts, beggars, nursing mothers, blacksmiths and spur- makers. In the 14th century he was also named as one of the fourteen Holy Helpers, a group of saints who were deemed to be effective in interceding to prevent disease – the bubonic plague was raging across Europe at the time. The commune of St Giles du Gard, close to Nîmes, continues to be a stopping point on the pilgrimage route to St Jacques de Compostelle and the saint’s shrine in the crypt of the abbey church is still a site of pilgrimage for women wanting to get pregnant.

 

The original Edinburgh church of St Giles was a modest building of stone and wood with a thatched roof. It stayed like that until the late 14th century when it was largely rebuilt in stone following a fire. The Thistle Chapel on the south side of the church looks old but is actually a very recent addition. 

Robert Stodart Lorimer
It was designed in the first years of the 20th century by Scottish architect Robert Stodart Lorimer, who was a keen exponent of the Arts and Crafts movement. Phoebe-Anna Traquair, Douglas Strachan and Joseph Hayes, leading Scottish figures in that movement, were all involved in the decoration of the interior. 


The Thistle Chapel

One final detail about the carvings in the churc. There is 

a map you can download from the St Giles website which shows you the location of the church’s Green Men. 



There are 66 in all, symbols of much older beliefs – and rituals. They stare down enigmatically at the statue of John Knox, St Giles’ most feared and famous minister. 




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