A ritual is a repetition of the same thing – the same meal, the same ceremony, the same prayer, the same celebration – in a life that is constantly changing, slipping past us, becoming something else. It is ritual that makes time a “moving image of eternity”, as Plato put it: that gives time meaning, that makes it livable. Stamp out ritual and time becomes a river flowing toward the abyss, destroying all living ties in its wake – because rituals are also irreplaceable moments of meeting.