Drama and Costume in Other Religions

If you want a perfect example of how drama is involved with other religions, the best example I can give is a Southern Baptist Revival. The preachers use the power of their voice, and the power of the music to instill a religious fervour into their celebrants. The crowd is extolled to Praise God! Yessir I said Praise God! Yes! I can feel the presence of God's Love in this Room now can I hear a Praise God! I bet just that sentence took your right there. Well imagine the people in the room, even the 80 year old granny is running up and down the aisles screaming her Praise to God. Don't believe me then watch the link below. A video will paint the story better than I could ever explain in a thousand words or more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If_aGkTn1Cw

Now as for costume, as Taras mentioned, a religious costume evokes a sense of authority to the parishioners. The more elaborate the costume the more it evokes a sense of wonder and authority. Look at me I wear red prada shoes and a pointy hat - make me the pope! It's probably why so many gay boys went into the priesthood - sanctioned drag! But seriously, sometimes by donning a costume it also evokes a belonging to a group and by donning the costume your wear not only the clothes but all the other social conventions, beliefs and cultural baggage that comes with the clothing.

Now for this particular example I have chosen the hassidic jewish community to demonstrate how costume can be used to create a sense of identity for an ethnic/religious group. From the standpoint of someone who is not part of the community, the garb would seem to be out of place with the rest of secular society. To such a person seeing a hassidic jew walk down the street would cause that person to ask, what's with the goofy hat. Not knowing that a phylodacterie is designed to point the prayers of the devout toward God, one may ask what's up with the jewelry box on the head? However for those growing up in the hassidic community the garb and all the acoutrements are necessary tools in which to practice their religion and more importantly to show to others in the community and to the world at large that here walks a devout and pious man. By taking on the costume one ends up invoking a role that is expected for them to play. The bigger question of course is can the hassidic jew or any other religious organization toss away the costume and still practice the pious life. Could they accept it, could the public at large accept it. Think about it, would you take the Pope more seriously if he gave mass in St Peters square in jeans, sketchers, an A&E hoody with a Sexy Grandpa T-shirt?