The Book of Modern Ceremony: Practices to Mark Life's Big and Small Moments

For those seeking connection and meaning in their everyday lives, an easy-to-follow, beautiful, and inspiring manual on performing ceremonies for all occasions and milestones, from life transitions and family gatherings to holidays and seasonal changes.

For as long as humans have existed, we have performed ceremonies to mark occasions and personal transitions to create meaning and connect with the world, ourselves, and each other. Though ceremony is still a cornerstone of many cultures around the globe, modern rituals are largely confined to just three events: birth, marriage, and death. Without our ancestors' sense of frequent and intentional ceremony, we have lost the power to bring meaning to our everyday lives. The Book of Modern Ceremony is here to change that.

Written by sociologist and ceremonialist Shari Dunbar Boyer, this book shares more than 30 ceremonies that can be easily incorporated into contemporary life. There are rituals for life transitions, calendar changes, and personal growth. Some celebrate familiar events, like the Untraditional Birthday or Vow Renewal ceremonies, but others mark important milestones that we often neglect, such as moving to a new home or entering menopause. And of course, there are seasonal rituals for every solstice, equinox, and moon cycle.

Presented in easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions, The Book of Modern Ceremony encourages readers to leave behind the daily stressors of life and connect more deeply with themselves, their loved ones, and their own spirituality.

Author: Shari Dunbar Boyer
Publisher: Workman Publishing
Published: 09/02/2025
Pages: 204
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.48lbs
Size: 9.22h x 7.22w x 0.82d
ISBN: 9781523527793


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 07/01/2025 pg. 60

About the Author
Shari Dunbar Boyer is a ceremonialist and trained herbalist. She has been studying plant medicines, natural healing modalities, and the use of ceremony in modern and traditional cultures for over a decade. Shari came to ceremony after a long career in marketing, seeking ways to create more meaning and connection in her life and her community. Shari lives with her husband, Chris, two young adult sons, Tristan and Dylan, and two dogs on a property she is fortunate to tend in the shade of the San Gabriel mountains, with a suburban farm in Altadena, California. You can connect with Shari at shariboyer.com or @sharidunbarboyer.