Rituals that helped heal a nation after a terror attack

Abstract

This article is about rituals that helped a nation heal after a terror attack. Our aim is to describe some of the spontaneous rituals organized at a local and national level in response to a dreadful event. Following a brief review of the international research literature and a qualitative document analysis (Bowen, 2009) of Norwegian newspaper articles and an Internet news site, we identify six overarching rituals that emphasize different socio-psychological phases related to collective crisis response and recovery.We discuss how these rituals helped a nation come to grips with the most shocking and deadly event in its present-day history. Furthermore, we suggest ways in which professional helpers and volunteer staff could have involved themselves in these rituals as an agent of healing and change. The attack and the immediate responseOn Friday afternoon, the 22nd of July 2011, a devastating explosion outside the entrance of Norway's government headquarters in downtown Oslo suddenly shattered the summer tranquility. Mayhem erupted in the city center. Parts of Oslo resembled a bombed suburb of a war-torn city. Severely injured pedestrians lay moaning in agony on the streets. The blast had killed people both inside in HQ and outside on the road and pavement. Bodies lay strewn in the streets among the tangled wreckage of cars and other smoldering debris. The government buildings were badly damaged. Many windows had been blown out and glass lay scattered on the pavement below. Several of the buildings were on fire. A few hours later the media reported that shots had been heard on Utøya Island (forty minutes outside Oslo), where the youth of Norway's Labour Party were holding their annual summer camp. Reports quickly emerged describing a gunman dressed in a police officer's uniform who was walking around the island and summarily executing young people at point blank range. Sixty-eight youth were shot dead on Utøya Island that fateful summer evening. Another died later in the hospital. Many others were seriously injured.Norway is a small, peaceful, and tightknit country. On the 22 nd of July 2011, the population, totaling five million people, was in utter shock. Norwegians had experienced nothing like this day since the Second World War when German forces occupied the country. Emergency services struggled to cope. Operational centers were set up in Oslo and at a hotel on the mainland adjacent to Utøya Island. Police in a