One of my first posts on this blog (well, on Catholicae Testudines), was on the concept of liturgy and ritual, how people have a deep-seated need for it. So much so that if they don't have it, they'll make ad hoc rituals, and if they don't have religious liturgy they'll make up replacements to fill the void.
A lot of the time people don't think consciously about this process, but sometimes they do. In Catalonia in Spain, the government has just issued a book of rites for secular liturgy intended to replace the ceremonies of the Catholic Church. That way, people can have the ritual and ceremony they crave but without the bother of the Catholic Church. All the parts they like, but not the parts they don't.
Really, this isn't too different from what some people try to do with the Church's actual liturgy, except these people are being honest about what they're doing. Not that that makes it good.
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