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Research a sacred site, choosing one that fits into any of the criteria mentioned below
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Write down the following information:
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What is the name of the site?
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Where is it located?
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To what group of people does it hold sacred meaning?
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When was it built/created and for what purpose?
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What rituals, if any, are performed at the site?
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According to the Oxford English Dictionary, one of the definitions of the word sacred is the following:
“b. Dedicated, set apart, exclusively appropriated to some person or some special purpose.”
Traditional Sacred Space - A house of worship designed and built for a congregation to gather, meet and enjoy community for the purposes of worship, liturgy and/or ritual
Civic Sites – engineered structures, secular in nature and scope – usually built by cities, states or government entities
Landscape Sites – sequestered spaces with natural features including water, trees, parkland which encourage quiet meditation and pause
Memorial Sites – markers of an event or person, burial grounds, cemeteries, sites of conscience and memory
Spiritual Places - that have been imprinted over time, or have been historically seen as “sacred” a priori – set aside for the public good
Sacred Ground – Indigenous sites, which have existed since before the arrival of Europeans to the American continent. They remain visible as palimpsests within the fabric of our contemporary American cities
(From PBS.org “Visiting Sacred Sites”)