Ring shout

This article is about the religious ritual. For the 2020 novella, see Ring Shout.

A shout, ring shout, Hallelujah march or victory march is a Christian religious practice in which worshipers move in a circle while praying and clapping their hands, sometimes shuffling and stomping their feet as well.[1] Despite the name, shouting aloud is not an essential part of the ritual march, which varies by congregation and locality.

The earliest accounts of the practice date to the 1840s, where the ring shout was described as being a form of revivalistic Christian worship.[2] Certain authors claim that the ring shout may be inspired by cultural practices in Africa that became incorporated as a part of Christian worship and imbued with new theological meaning.[3][4] Ring shouts may occur when a congregant experienced the New Birth or became entirely sanctified.[5][6] Ring shouts may also occur when the congregation perceives the presence of the Holy Spirit during worship.[7]

African slaves in the West Indies and the United States partook in ring shouts upon their conversion to Christianity.[5] The ring shout was has been practiced in some Black churches into the 20th century, and it continues to the present among the Gullah people of the Sea Islands and in "singing and praying bands" associated with many Methodist congregations in Tidewater Maryland and Delaware, which have a large African American membership.[8]

Hallelujah marches are associated with the Baptist, Methodist (especially in congregations aligned with the holiness movement), and Pentecostal branches of Christianity.[9] [10] Hallelujah marches have a strong association with Christian tent meetings and camp meetings, in which the New Birth and entire sanctification are promulgated.[11][12][13] They have been practiced by Christians of various ethnic and racial backgrounds.[5]

A more modern form, known still as a "shout" (or "praise break"), is practiced in many Pentecostal churches, along with black churches of various denominations, to the present day. Traditionally, ushers in Arkansas and Mississippi form a circle around the church member and allows them to shout within the circle.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Holland2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference palmer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Knowles, Mark (3 June 2002). Tap Roots: The Early History of Tap Dancing. McFarland. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-7864-1267-9.
  4. ^ Hunter, TaTande Whitney V. (August 2023). "The "Ring Shout": A Corporeal Conjuring of Black-Togetherness". Dance Research Journal. 55 (2): 44–57. doi:10.1017/S0149767723000268. Yes, groups that sustain the Ring Shout as "authentic" to the Gullah-Geechee culture are mostly Christian based in their religious affiliation. However, the very practice of assembling and traveling along the sacred circle goes deep into the cultural history of the various African peoples that are sources of the indigenous culture of the Gullah-Geechee, specifically, people of African descent from the West and West-Central African regions.
  5. ^ a b c Johnson, Alonzo; Jersild, Paul T. (1996). Ain't Gonna Lay My 'ligion Down: African American Religion in the South. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-57003-109-0. The symbolic importance of the ring or circle in Negro spiritual expression is underscored in European traveler Fredrika Bremer's account of an interracial evangelical camp meeting near Charleston, South Carolina in 1850, where she witnessed amng slaves, mostly from South Carolina, circles of women dancing "the holy dance" for the newly converted; circles of people holding hands, rocking and singing joyously; and even a "vast" circle of tents "of all imaginable forms and colours." ... The continued observance of the ring shout ritual throughout the slave community, especially among those 'converted' to Christianity, demonstrates beyond question the tenacious power and influence of the slaves' African cultural inheritance.
  6. ^ Lincoln, C. Eric; Mamiya, Lawrence H. (7 November 1990). The Black Church in the African American Experience. Duke University Press. p. 365. ISBN 978-0-8223-1073-0. What is indisputable, however, is that the shout serves as a testimony to the shouter's felt sense of Spirit Baptism or sanctification.
  7. ^ Lincoln, C. Eric; Mamiya, Lawrence H. (7 November 1990). The Black Church in the African American Experience. Duke University Press. p. 365. ISBN 978-0-8223-1073-0. If the dancing continues without the music, it is assumed that it is genuine and induced by the Holy Spirit. But if it ceases, apparently it was not so holy after all and was merely rhythmically induced.
  8. ^ David, Jonathan C. (2007). Together Let Us Sweetly Live: The Singing and Praying Bands. Champaign IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07419-6.
  9. ^ Ingersol, Stan (1 December 2009). "A Photojournal of Compassion". Holiness Today. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  10. ^ Bowie, Lenard C. (30 January 2012). African American Musical Heritage: An Appreciation, Historical Summary, and Guide to Music Fundamentals. Bowie. p. 244. ISBN 978-1-4653-0575-6. Ring shouts often lasted for hours on end. The shout was a central part of Holiness and Pentecostal services.
  11. ^ Ingersol, Stan (1 December 2009). "The Closer: Phineas Bresee and Church Union". Holiness Today. Retrieved 17 July 2024. Committed to uniting the regional churches, Bresee secured concessions from the Southerners and from his own group, and on October 13, at 10:40 in the morning, the vote to merge the denominations was taken, followed by scenes of great joy and a "Hallelujah March" around the meeting tent.
  12. ^ Satterfield, Ray; Cope, Daniel (2018). A Heritage of Holiness: The Story of Allegheny Wesleyan Methodism. Salem: Allegheny Press. p. 133. At the close of the altar service the camp closed with the largest and most glorious "Hallelujah March" we have ever witnessed.
  13. ^ "Salvation Army Old Orchard Beach Camp Meeting". The Sacramento Union. Sacramento, California. 20 July 1885. p. 2. Retrieved 17 July 2024. The Salvation Army opened its national campmeeting here to-day with a "knee drill at 7 a. m., followed by the hallelujah march.