Sacred and Profane

 “Sacredness” and “Profanity”, the two contradicting ideas, will be completely meaningless without any of our perception or interpretation. Sacred is the way people put an object or subject up to the highest esteem something that does not belong to human. God is the sacred subject which people who believe in God have a common belief that mentioning God has to be in a positive way with a sacred context or a belief that mentioning God in a profane context is blasphemy, for instance, giving the expression by saying “Oh my God!”. So sacred things are what we respect. On the other hand, profane is opposite to sacred. It is a topic for human, ordinary things in our daily life. Something belongs to human. Swearing, gossiping, drinking, smoking are profane. But what is a line between sacredness and profanity.

Object will be just an object, neither profane nor sacred. A chair sitting in a room will be just a chair, neither profane nor sacred. If that chair is decorated with gold, having a red carpet leading us there, sitting in the most powerful spot in a throne hall, we would know immediately that it is not just a chair. We see all ornamentation and its surrounding context. We perceive the importance of the chair through another perception that decoration with gold is extravagance and red carpet is importance. It is more important than just being a chair. It is not a chair for us but it is a throne for king. This reminded me of a scene from a movie King’s speech when King George VI and Lionel were left alone at the church. King George was shocked when Lionel took the action that normal people couldn’t do which was sitting on the throne. It is an important chair that no one could sit on but the king. King George was angry because he has a perception that the throne was sacred. This chair wouldn’t be sacred and important without anyone perceived it that way.  

To raise a chair to become sacred, you just make it different add ornamentation to it and put it in the sacred context. It is the same as the idea of museum. Museum brings something very profane and raises it to be sacred by putting the object on the pedestal with glass covered so no one could touch it and by giving the lighting on it and make it important. However, there is something different which is museum attempt is to stop the object from dying and raise its true value. That is a process of museumification- museum and mummification.

Museum and a throne are the example of how to raise the profane object to be sacred. To make sacred thing to be profane can also be done as well. The play is profane. It is something that we enjoy, an entertainment for us. Many of play run the story through something sacred for example Greek play. Talking about Greek gods and goddesses, which suppose to be sacred but the way we perceive it is through the profane method. Greek play, Oedipus, refers to the oracle which catalysts the entire play. Oracle, which is the message from god suppose to be sacred, is in a profane form. This is how sacred thing can be profane.

Object can never be sacred or profane with out us as a medium. Our perception, values and background are indicators of what is profane or sacred. It is standard of sacredness. As we have different values and backgrounds, we have different perceptions. Something that I think that it is sacred may be just a joke for you which may cause conflict in the society. The only thing that we can do is to respect others and open your heart up.