Religions typically have particular practices in which people engage.
The form of these practices varies greatly and may include such activities
as worship, preaching, prayer, meditation, confession, sacrifice, offerings,
rites of passage and other sacred ceremonies. Sometimes these practices
are quite elaborate and publicly visible, as in the eucharistic liturgy
of the Eastern Orthodox Church or the sacred ceremonies of Australian aboriginal
religions. Sometimes they are much less elaborate and less publicly visible,
as in the forms of meditation practised in Buddhism or the private prayer
which is part of various religious traditions. In using the word "ritual"
to describe such activities one does not necessarily imply that there is
a precisely specified form which the practices must take, nor does one
necessarily imply that people undertake these activities simply out of
habit. In many forms of ritual there is both an outer (or visible) and
inner (or non-visible) aspect.