Religious practices - Topics

How do fasting rules reshape the weekly grocery list? Is infant circumcision a religious rite or a cultural habit for most families? The 39 categories of work forbidden on Shabbat and where they came from A monastery timetable runs from before dawn and leaves little unscheduled time Rivers treated as deities still get dammed — what happens to the ritual? Why some communities avoid kitniyot on Passover Lay oblates follow a monastic rule while living and working outside How Zen practice and Tibetan practice train the mind differently What actually goes on the table at a communal iftar? Grand silence is kept in some houses from evening until morning prayer A ten-day Vipassana course runs on silence and a fixed timetable Wudu uses water five times a day — how do mosques conserve it? How do the Five Pillars organize obligatory belief and practice together? What food traditions follow a death in different religious communities? Why do halal and kosher aisles look so different in the same supermarket? What is it like to fast on Yom Kippur while still expected at your desk? Why some agnostics still attend services and keep the festivals What a guru is expected to provide a disciple Tithing survives in some churches and has quietly faded in others What is actually taught in a confirmation preparation class for teenagers? Buddhist monks on alms rounds depend on the neighborhood for one meal a day What the sudreh and kusti are worn for What research finds on religion and generalized social trust Why Karva Chauth fasting is done for a husband's long life How a kosher kitchen keeps meat and dairy apart Root vegetables are avoided in Jain food because pulling them up kills the plant Why do Muslims fast from dawn to sunset during Ramadan? Who is excused from the Ramadan fast and what they do instead Home puja follows a routine that changes with region and family What Paryushana requires of lay Jains Langar feeds anyone who walks in regardless of faith or caste How the nineteen-day fast shapes a Baha'i year