The Octobering workshop is available for bookings by classes (high school, college, and university) and private groups of at least six people. Please contact public@cca.qc.ca for information or to schedule this workshop.

Octobering introduces students to the idea of rituals in everyday life. We start with a historical example in post-revolutionary Russia, where the new government invented rituals and civic ceremonies to produce a new society. Students will explore how special images, gestures, objects, spaces, actions and ceremonies continue to guide and reinforce social values today.

The workshop leads students to imagine what kind of rituals they want for a better world. First through a teacher-led workshop where they give themselves revolutionary new names, and then by an online CCA-led workshop where they invent new social rituals in small groups.

Part 1:

• In class activity in preparation for the workshop. To be conducted by teachers.
• A presentation introducing the naming ceremony Octobering and a brief history of early Soviet rituals.
• A group discussion and mapping of values and ideas and names.
• An individual re-naming activity, inventing a new name based on the values they choose to represent.

Part 2:

• Introduction to the idea of ritual as a communicative action and consideration of daily events as rituals. What are contemporary rituals? What do these events communicate to us?
• A workshop in which students develop, in groups of three, a ritual for the kind of world they want to live in. What values does this ritual communicate? Who takes part in it? Where does it take place? And what instruments and actions is it composed of?
• In a series of short presentations, each team will act out their ritual and share the idea behind it.

Octobering is a two-part, online workshop and is offered year-round in either French or English. Teachers will receive documentation to lead the first part of the workshop, and the second part will be led by the CCA Public team through a video call. To make a reservation or for more information, please contact us at public@cca.qc.ca or call +1 514 939 7002.