ABSTRACT
The predominant form of political civic ritual in the modern world, and certainly including industrial societies, are the rituals of nationalism. New forms of civic ritual are continually emerging in modern Britain, and as these take over successfully from the civic ritual of the Church of England, a greater degree of separation between religious and civic ritual becomes possible. Sports also carry some nationalistic civic ritual, as well as local civic ritual, around the town or city area’s football team, for example. The existence of the new forms of national civic ritual lessens the demands made on the Church of England for such civic ritual, and thus the Church is becoming a more specifically ‘religious’ ritual organisation than it was, even before the Second World War. The ritual symbolism of the tree with lights on it is North European and pre-Christian in origin.
