Religious Affairs Office

Every year, World Water Day is celebrated on 22 March to remind us of the importance of this essential liquid and to focus our attention on the vital importance of water and the sustainable management of freshwater resources. The way we value water determines how it is shared and managed. The value of water is about much more than its price – water has enormous and complex value for culture, health, the economy, etc. and, also for religious and spiritual traditions.

Water is a vital element for life and it also has sacred connotations. The first nine months of our existence are spent immersed in water, two thirds of the human body is water, we need water to quench our thirst, to wash and cool us down, to prepare food, and so on.

Water is a sacred gift from nature. Without water life is not possible. In ancient philosophy, water was believed to be one of the four elements – air, water, earth and fire – that everything in the cosmos was made from. Water is a key component and forms the basis of all cultures and religions. In Eastern culture, water is considered to be a prime material: “Everything is water”, according to Hindu texts. Water cleanses and purifies the body, which gives it a symbolic and even sacred status in some cases and makes it a key element in many religious ceremonies and services.

Almost all religions use water for ritual purposes. Water is part of the symbolic heritage of all cultures and religions. All over the world, human beings project onto water the realisation of their hopes and fears, the promise of life and the threat of death. Water carries all of this; droughts and floods are signs of our difficulty controlling the power of water. Spiritual water is never passive or neutral. It is considered that this water has the power and capacity to transform the world, to redeem sins and to sanctify. Water removes contamination and purifies both in a physical and a symbolic sense. Water is a living, spiritual substance that acts as a mediator between humankind and the Gods.

Often, water is perceived in religions as a God, as a deity or a divine entity. Rivers, rainwater, pools, lakes, glaciers, hailstones and snow are just some of the forms water takes when it is interpreted and incorporated into cultural, religious and spiritual spheres. In most religions, water as a sacred gift means purification, renovation, deliverance, fertility and abundance. The element of water is present, sanctifying, sacralising, internalising ancestral beliefs and cultures. From the major Eastern religions, which view water as the origin of all that exists, through the nature-based, cosmobiological religions, in which water is the transmitter and expression of life, to Islam, in which water is considered to fall from the sky as a divine symbol and in which mankind itself has been created from a flowing figure, and the biblical tradition, in which water is a creature and a gift from God and, at the same time, is present in all creations as a life-giving element. As we can see, different religions and spiritualities have made and make abundant use of water, with interpretations and applications that are fairly similar with regard to the duality of life and death. Often water represents the frontier between this world and the next.

In Christianity, for example, water is an intrinsic part of baptism; in Hinduism, water is associated with spiritual purification, for example, the sacred tradition of bathing in the Ganges; in Judaism, the ritual of cleansing with water enables the restoration or conservation of a state of purity, for example in the use of the Mikveh (ritual bath); in Islam, water serves a purifying function, for example, the ablution before daily prayer; in Buddhism, water is used in funerals, pouring water from a vessel into a cup or bowl before the monks and the body of the deceased until it overflows, reciting “As rivers full of water fill the ocean full, even so does what is given here benefit the dead”.

Water is an essential requirement for life, and many cultural, religious and spiritual traditions perform rain-making prayers and rituals during extended periods of drought: for example, in Christianity, icons of saints are carried in procession as prayers for rain are recited; in Hinduism there is a ritual performed to the God Indra (regarded as controller of the atmosphere and god of rain and storms); in ancient Egypt and in indigenous religions in the Americas, rain dances are performed; and in Islam there is a specific prayer for requesting and seeking rain water, the ṣalāt al-istisqa, (“rain request prayer”) which takes place first thing in the morning outside the mosque, calling on God to send rain.

Every year, World Water Day focuses on a particular theme. In 2024 it is “Leveraging water for peace”.