The Revival Table – Feared, but revered
‘This tradition is, to a great extent, rooted in the burial rituals of Africans ripped from their ancestral homeland and reduced to chattels in a dystopian landscape of European enslavement with its ritual of ownership and possession.’
THE REVIVAL religion in Jamaica evolved out of the Great Revival of 1860-61. It has two branches – ‘60’ and ‘61’ – the latter of which is regarded the holier of the two because of certain practices. But, in every respect, both branches are a composite of African traditional religiosity and ancestral spirituality, and Christian beliefs and practices.
The singing, drumming, praying, preaching, movements, the aesthetics of the places of worship, and the attire of the worshippers are easily identifiable. For, Revivalism is deeply steeped in symbolism; nothing about it is meaningless and arbitrary. The purposefulness of it all is oft misunderstood, and thus the Revival church is regarded as mysterious and mystical at the same time. The symbolism of the Revival church is embedded in its rituals, which are invariably what Revival worshipping is about.
SIMPLISTIC OR ELABORATE
A major standout is the ritual of the Revival Table, which is set up for various reasons, and can be of different sizes. As for content, it can range from the simplistic to the elaborate, and can set be up for more than one day. A variety of bread, pastries, fruits, juices, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, milk, grains, flowers and candles is used to load the tables, around which most of the ritual takes place. And, while the table is feared by some, it is revered by others.
“The Revival Table, which seems to combine the feeding of ancestral spirits (grounds spirits) … with the feeding of the deifical spirits (heavenly and earthbound spirits), is an artistically arranged display of traditional Jamaican food … ,” Professor Clinton Hutton writes in ‘The Revival Table – Feasting with the ancestors and spirits’, in Jamaica Journal
Vol. 32 Nos. 1-2.
Feasting is a major part of the Revival Table, with or without ancestral spirits, for, when the table is “broken”, worshippers partake of some of its contents, while the rest remains until the table is disassembled. Apart from the food on the table, there might be curried or stewed goat meat, fried or roasted chicken, fried fish, fried plantation, okra and callaloo, fritters, bammy, goat belly soup, etc.
“This tradition is, to a great extent, rooted in the burial rituals of Africans ripped from their ancestral homeland and reduced to chattels in a dystopian landscape of European enslavement with its ritual of ownership and possession,” Professor Hutton writes, “The ritual feeding of the ancestors and ancestral gods is, in some respects, quite pervasive and central to the way that many people in the African diaspora make sense of their existential reality and sense of self.”
It is this feast that many outsiders do not understand and refuse to indulge in, thus betraying the attitude of fear or disdain for the Revival Table, to which others turn to for help, assistance, healing, redemption, if you will. The participation is intentional. They believe that, in communicating with ancestral spirits through the Revival Table, poverty, ill health, diseases, spells, ill luck, ‘saltness’, ‘crosses’, etcetera, will be expunged from their beings.
And, in order to learn some more about the purpose and significance of the Revival Table, Family and Religion spoke with Bishop O’Neil Miller, the leader of The Apostolic Sabbath Church located in Golden Hill, St Andrew, where he recently hosted a table. He said people fear the Revival Table because “it is not something you should play with, tables are not playthings”. Some tables are set for “death order” and sometimes, after the table is set, “war bruk out”. The setting up has to be deliberate and with awareness, or “the wrong messenger” might be invited into the space.
The table that Family and Religion witnessed, he said, was a thanksgiving one, “to give thanks or to strengthen one’s spiritual life and journey … for the spiritual uplifting of many persons, including myself … a way of cutting and clearing the healing message for the church”. The candle-lighting segment is integral to the healing process.
As the participants lit their candles of various colours, they sent silent prayers into the universe, hoping that healing, correction, redemption, etcetera, would bounce back into their world. There was much singing, scatting, dancing, trumping, drumming, exaltation, and rebuke around the table. The cadence of the singing, the peculiar dancing styles, the intensity of the drumming, the hypnotic stares, were nothing short of electrifying.
After the table was broken with the breaking of a bread that was stretched across the table, the pieces were carried around the room and shared. Bishop Miller then went around pouring milk from a glass pewter into the mouths of his flock. After that, two of his members were instructed to give those who approached the table three items from it. This was the beginning of the feast, which included goat soup, carried goat, rice and peas, and fried chicken, all prepared and cooked by Bishop Miller himself.
Some people partook of the food on the spot while others, especially visitors from out of parish, took it with them. The gathering dwindled to a few people as it got closer to 11 p.m. The table was eventually left lit with the unconsumed food, fruits, liquour, and other paraphernalia. The feast was not over, and might have continued for a few more days. There were other ‘people’ to be fed at the Revival Table.