Alanna Dailey - Rhythm of Time

In Religion in Essence and Manifestation, Van Der Leeuuw discusses sacred time. Oral cultures do not have linear time. They do not record time in minutes, days, weeks, and years. They do not have a year that ends and begins again. Van der Leeuw describes sacred time as moments and notes in a melody. I like this melody and sacred time metaphor. Both time and melodies have rhythm. Time or “duration” as van der Leeuw calls it, eases from one moment to another. If you were to press a key on a piano and then another and another, the notes flow into one another just as moments flow into one another. This time is continuous and cyclical. For me, summertime as a child is the best example of sacred time. School is out and each day flows into one another. I did not know what date was or even what day of the week is was. During the days I told time by my stomach – I was hungry for lunch and then again at dinner.
Van der Leeuw also discusses the rhythm of the calendar of festivals. These festivals are markers to indicate what “instants of time” are important. For me the Fourth of July (even though it is on a specific linear date) represented the midpoint of summer. Not wanted summer to end, July 4th meant that from that moment on, I had to live each moment to its fullest so that summer would stretch out. Once the weather grew unbearably humid with absolutely no wind, the excitement of summer faded and soon after school would start. Not that I ever wanted summer to end, but I understood this cycle and rhythm of time.