Ritual: A way of doing things in religious and non-religious ceremonies. They are a guideline or a blueprint of how things are done. For example of a religious Ritual is that of Samhaine it's the Wiccan Ritual for Halloween (sorry I"m Wiccan). Each step in preparing for it is like a ritual all in its self. Take the preparations for example: You must gather an apple, a palmigranet, 1 pot of earth, containing three seeds of Rue or Lavender for each participant. Strew (cover) the sacred space with richly colored fall leaves, and mark the quarters (N, E, S, W) with differently carved pumpkins that each bear an unlit candle. Next you must set up the alter an alter is where you place everything you"ll need for the ritual. It's basically a table decorated with a pentacle in the center. To set the alter up for the Samhaine Ritual you place the apple, palmigranet, and pots of earth on the alter's surface. If the pots can't fit on the surface then place them around the base of the alter. Next you recite the invocations, which I've left out, You start with South (fire) and end with West (water), going clockwise to mark the time of death. The candles in the pumpkins are ignited by the person reciting that quarters invocation. Now for the actual Ritual part of the ceremony. The leader goes to the alter and holds the palmigranet up towards the sky and says "Behold the fruit of life." The leader pierces the fruit with the Athame (the ritual dagger) and continues. "Whose seeds lie in the dormancy of death. We taste the seeds of death." The leader bites the fruit then passes it around the circle, each takes a seed and eats it. Next the leader holds up the apple saying. "Behold the fruit of wisdom, the fruit of death." He or she then cuts the apple crosswise so the inner pentacle formed by the seeds can be seen and continues, "Whose symbolism rewards us with life eternal the five fold star of rebirth! We taste the fruit of rebirth.
