Putting up a Christmas tree and hanging stockings on Christmas Eve strike me as atheist rituals. Maybe they developed from Christian tradition (I’m almost certain they didn’t, but I don’t want someone saying “Cite?!” :D). Similarly for the Easter Bunny and Easter Egg hunts.
So, yes, atheists already have rituals; people of other religions just follow along as well.
I still have plenty of religious relatives, I often have to sit around while they pray before meals and such. I just pretend I’m an anthropologist observing the ways of the superstitious natives, who happen to be my kin. You need to be respectful and not make them ashamed or alarmed of their primitive practices, and try to figure out what cultural and human needs the practices serve.
They are certainly not atheist rituals. They were rituals from other religious and spiritual traditions that ended up being incorporated into Catholic traditions.
Anthropologists, clean-up in thread seven!
I work at a university and go to commencement twice a year-- I consider that Christmas and Easter for My People (career nerds). When a student I know is graduating turns in his/her final exam in my class, I shake his/her hand and say “Get outta here.” My friends and I get liquored up and sing “Fairytale of New York” once a year. On my dad’s birthday and those of others I’ve lost I dedicate a drink. I drink juleps on derby day even though I don’t watch the race. I dig birthdays and New Years. These are all rituals. The religious people have theirs, I have mine, they all give meaning to life and mark transitional/liminal spaces and moments.
There are tons of rituals for atheists. Rituals that celebrate the state, for example. Saluting the flag, singing the national anthem, celebrating the national day, veterans day, etc. These are all actions that - like religious rituals - take their meaning from some sort of ideological system. In this case an idea or a narrative about a nation’s greatness, about the “intrinsic values” of a certain mindset, of the idea that there is a “people” in any real sense. There is even mythological stories to connect it all - founding fathers, revolutions, etc. that are ascribed meaning and value today; sometimes they are even re-enacted like in religious ritual dramas.
Rituals are definitely not confined to the “religious” as opposed to a “secular” sphere.
I grew up in an atheist/humanist Jewish religious household and practice nearly all of the rituals that I grew up with. There is no option for “I grew up religious, there are rituals for atheists and I like them” though. 
As a Jewish atheist I practice most of the rituals I grew up with and enjoy them very much.
Putting on my pedant hat, these are not rituals for atheists, they are rituals for people of a certain ethnicity or nationality or membership. Atheists happen to be among these groups and might participate in them for reasons unrelated to their atheism.
It is, of course, true that they are not rituals specifically for atheists. I was merely trying to point out that a) rituals are not restricted to religion, b) (many) atheists perform rituals as part of their lives. I am not aware of any codified Atheism rituals in the sense of rituals that take their primary meaning from an atheist ethos (if one such exists that isn’t merely a reversal or a rejection of (an atheist idea of) a Religious ethos.
I grew up RC…talk about ritual!
Even as an atheist leaning agnostic, I go (voluntarily) to midnight mass Christmas eve with family most years, participate in Christmas festivities, attend christenings, weddings, funeral masses, etc. When my late SO’s grandmother was still alive, if we were at her house on the weekend, we would take her to services at her Methodist church. I’ve sung or played religious songs at many jams and a number of funerals. I’ve been present for Pagan and Wiccan gatherings.
Generally, I tend to see some of these rituals in a different light than the folks sponsering the events. I can see something humanist in most of them, a sense of community and a general beauty in the music and artwork. I may not believe, but still appreciate some aspects of them.
Sometimes, I wish that the UU church that I sporadically attend had more ritual, but given the nature of the congregation, I totally understand why it doesn’t.
I voted that I wish we had more ritual.
I lean more agnostic than atheist, but I miss the rituals - some of them anyway. (I didn’t vote because you were asking atheists.)
I don’t like rituals. I don’t like religious ones and I don’t like secular ones. I don’t like praying to God OR the flag OR going to graduations OR funerals OR weddings OR speeches. The closest thing to ritual I like is watching all the little predictable things that happen in baseball games–a set number of warm up pitches, signs, throwing to first, etc., that I guess comprise a ritual. But I just don’t like much else that can be fit into that category.
I feel like I’m a minority in saying that I grew up religious (Catholic) am now atheist and still rather miss the ritual surrounding the mass and other ceremonies.
Some aspects of the mass were beautiful, some fun, some rather tedious but in participating I always felt a sense of community and tradition. I was getting together with a hundred other people every week and we all knew the stand-sit-kneel-sit-kneel steps, we all knew the same words to the prayers and songs, we were all listening to the same parables that we all already know. We were all in it together.
The dogma of religion never appealed to me, but the community did. It seems that most atheists I know (and perhaps it’s just the ones that I know) are all about being as special and alone and individual as possible. A fine attitude most of the time, but I miss a sense of belonging sometimes.
Exactly what I was going to post.
I don’t so much miss the sense of belonging: there’s always a way to belong somewhere if you want to, and the atheists/agnostics I know who miss that tend to go Unitarian Universalist (which has always completely boggled my mind, but that’s a topic for another thread). But after 13 years I sometimes still miss the tradition and ceremony that is specific to Catholicism.
I grew up Catholic and the rituals were among my first clues of the pointlessness and silliness of the whole thing.
I grew up in a hippie-minded pro-Apocalyptic cult, and I don’t miss most of it. There weren’t many rituals to begin with – but even while I was a Follower of Christ, I never felt comfortable with the hymn singing, the prayer circles, or any of that stuff – it never felt genuine to me.
The only things I sometimes miss about Christianity are (1) the absolute certainty that all my enemies are going to burn in hell, (2) the comfort that Jesus Christ follows you and protects you wherever you go (even when God “works in mysterious ways”), and (3) the Great Apocalypse is Nigh. Oh well, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. 
I’m not religious at all but I LOVE rituals. I just love following a set pattern of behavior determined by tradition.
I always enjoyed listening to singing in the Christmas choral services, despite having been brought up totally non-religious, I put up decorations, give out eggs, celebrate any random religious or cultural festival I come across (Divali, Ramadan, Guy Fawkes night, Matariki, whatever’s going…)
If you don’t believe in the associations, and treat it like an interesting historical leftover it can all be great fun! I don’t want to invent any atheist traditions (apart from a long lie-in on sundays) because… well… they’d just feel contrived, I like a bit of history to my superstitious playtime.
Incidently, this attitude seems to annoy a lot of very religious people more than actually opposing their festivals does.
When I posted upthread, I specifically mentioned religious rituals. suranyi made me think about the rituals I and my family participate in that aren’t necessarily religious, but coincide with holidays. Such as going to a particular restaurant on Christmas Eve; or taking a long weekend vacation at Easter (my office is closed on Good Friday), and going on a car trip 3-6 hours away, or something like that. It’s tradition in my family, and I like that.
None of what we do is religious, per se; I prefer to think of it as tradition, rather than ritual.
I’m an Evolutionary Anthropologist raised Roman Catholic with some German and Jewish rituals thrown in there. As an Anthropologist, I have to point out (as others mentioned) that rituals don’t have to be religious. They are a set of actions that a group knows about and performs, sometimes individually, sometimes together, and sometimes a mix. I’m not sure about the dividing line between human and non-human activities, but the capuchins I study sometimes engage in behaviors that we refer to as ‘traditions’, but could also be thought of as rituals. They have no purpose outside of the meaning that the members of that culture ascribe to the actions. Rituals can be dangerous or potentially costly to members as a way to show trust and cement relationships. Studies of communes have found that the more rituals a group engages in, the more likely the commune is to survival.
All human societies have rituals. In our own, we have both religious and secular. Examples of secular rituals are baby showers, bachelor/bachelorette parties, graduation ceremonies, parades and many sporting events.
I didn’t see a poll answer that fit my view. I love rituals. It may just be the Anthropologist in me, but I love finding out about new rituals in various cultures. Rituals become important to a group of people who find themselves in a culture that is very different than their original one. Holidays that we normally didn’t celebrate become very important amongst my coworkers living in Costa Rica as many of us can’t afford to fly to our various homes for them. We have people from all over the world and we love learning about the various rituals they have back home and incorporating them into a group experience.
I love weddings, baby showers, etc. I love participating in rituals that I’ve not participated in before. I find them fascinating.