A shout, ring shout, Hallelujah march or victory march is a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

religious practice in which worshipers move in a circle while praying and clapping their hands, sometimes shuffling and stomping their feet as well. 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. Certain authors claim that the ring shout may be inspired by cultural practices in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

that became incorporated as a part of Christian worship and imbued with new theological meaning. Ring shouts may occur when a congregant experienced the New Birth or became entirely sanctified. Ring shouts may also occur when the congregation perceives the presence of the Holy Spirit during worship. African slaves in the

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and the

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partook in ring shouts upon their conversion to Christianity. The ring shout has been practiced in some Black churches into the 20th century, and it continues to the present among the Gullah people of the

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and in "singing and praying bands" associated with many Methodist congregations in Tidewater

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

and

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, which have a large African American membership. Hallelujah marches are associated with the

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

(especially in congregations aligned with the holiness movement), and

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...

branches of Christianity. Hallelujah marches have a strong association with Christian tent meetings and camp meetings, in which the New Birth and

entire sanctification Within many Christian denomination, denominations of Christianity, Christian perfection is the theological concept of the process or the event of achieving spiritual maturity or perfection. The ultimate goal of this process is Divinization (Chris ...

are promulgated. They have been practiced by Christians of various ethnic and racial backgrounds. 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. International recognition now through the “Gullah Geechee Ring Shouters”: https://www.wwno.org/show/american-routes/2025-01-17/american-routes-shortcuts-the-gullah-geechee-ring-shouters Also https://blacklistedculture.com/gullah-geechee-ring-shouters/

Description

"Shouting" often took place during or after a

prayer meeting or worship service. Men and women moved in a circle in a counterclockwise direction, shuffling their feet, clapping, and often spontaneously singing or praying aloud. Robert Palmer states that it "developed with the widespread conversion of slaves to Christianity during the revival fervors of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries." He further writes that the "earliest accounts date from the 1840s; more vivid descriptions from the twentieth century leave little doubt that the dancing and stamping constituted a kind of drumming, especially when worshipers had a wooden church floor to stamp on." Ring shouts have often used as an act of praise when a person accepts the message of Christianity. As such, they are also known as "Hallelujah Marches", with the word Hallelujah meaning "Praise Jahweh". The term "Victory March" has been used to reference the Christian concept of actively serving God and living victoriously over sin. In

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and

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

the shout was usually performed around a special second altar near the center of a church building. In the

of Georgia and South Carolina, shouters formed a circle outdoors, around the church building itself. In some cases, enslaved people retreated into the woods at night to perform shouts, often for hours at a time, with participants leaving the circle as they became exhausted. In the twentieth century, churchgoers (especially those of the Methodist and Pentecostal traditions) in the United States performed shouts by forming a circle around the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

, in the space in front of the altar, or around the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

. Ring shouts were sometimes held in honour of the dead. This custom has been practiced by traditional bands of carnival revelers in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Origin

According to musicologist Robert Palmer, the first written accounts of the ring shout date from the 1840s, during the pinnacle of Christian revivalism. The stamping on the church floor and clapping in a circle was described as a kind of "drumming," and 19th-century writers described it as accompanying the conversion of slaves to Christianity.. The ring shout gained ground among

s of the holiness movement. Certain authors posit that the Christian ring shout may be assumed to be derived from African dance, and scholars usually point out the presence of melodic elements such as call-and-response singing and heterophony, as well as rhythmic elements such as tresillo and "hamboned" rhythm, and aesthetic elements such as counter-clockwise dancing and ecstasy, which makes the ring shouts of Christianity similar to ceremonies among people like the Bakongo, Igbos, Yoruba, Ibibio,

Efik The Efik are an ethnic group located primarily in southern Nigeria, and western Cameroon. Within Nigeria, the Efik can be found in the present-day Cross River State and Akwa Ibom state. The Efik speak the Efik language which is a member of the ...

, Bahumono. A minority of scholars have suggested that the ritual may have originated among enslaved Muslims from

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

as an imitation of ''

tawaf The Kaaba (), also spelled Kaba, Kabah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaba al-Musharrafa (), is a stone building at the center of Islam's most important mosque and Holiest sites in Islam, holiest site, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Sa ...

'', the mass procession around the

Kaaba The Kaaba (), also spelled Kaba, Kabah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaba al-Musharrafa (), is a stone building at the center of Islam's most important mosque and Holiest sites in Islam, holiest site, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Sa ...

that is an essential part of the

Hajj Hajj (; ; also spelled Hadj, Haj or Haji) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for capable Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetim ...

. If so, the word "shout" may come from

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

''shawṭ'', meaning "a single run", such as a single circumambulation of the Kaaba, or an open space of ground for running.

Influence

Sterling Stuckey in his book, ''Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory & the Foundations of Black America'' (1987, ) argues that ring shout was a unifying element of Africans in American colonies, from which field hollers, work songs, and spirituals evolved, followed by blues and jazz. In his article, "Ring Shout! Literary Studies, Historical Studies, and Black Music Inquiry", Samuel A. Floyd Jr. argues that many of the stylistic elements observed during the ring shout later laid the foundations of various black music styles developed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. According to Floyd, "...all of the defining elements of black music are present in the ring...". These basic elements of ring shouts included calls, cries, and hollers; blue notes; call-and-response; and various rhythmic aspects. Examples of black music that would evolve from the ring include, but are not limited to, Afro-American burial music of New Orleans, the Blues, the Afro-American Symphony, as well as the music that has accompanied various dance forms also present in Afro-American culture. The ring shout has developed into the modern " shout" (or "praise break") tradition now seen across the globe. Though augmented and interracialized by the Pentecostal tradition in the early 1900s and spreading to various denominations and churches thereafter, it is still primarily practiced among Christians of West African descent. The ring shout continues today in Georgia with the McIntosh County Shouters.

References

Bibliography

*Diouf, Sylviane. ''Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas.'' New York: New York University Press, 1998. *Floyd Jr., Samuel A. "Ring Shout! Literary Studies, Historical Studies, and Black Music Inquiry." ''Black Music Research Journal,'' Vol. 22 (2002): 49-70. *Parrish Lydia. ''Slave Songs of the Georgia Islands.'' 1942. Reprint, Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1992. *Turner, Lorenzo Dow. ''Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect.'' 1949. Reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1969.

External links