pagan rituals
Pre-Christian worship practices
Pagan rituals are ceremonies or practices associated with pre-Christian religions, nature worship, or polytheistic traditions.
The term covers everything from ancient rites honoring seasonal cycles to modern Wiccan observances: The summer solstice gathering featured pagan rituals around a bonfire.
In casual use, pagan rituals may dismissively describe any spiritual practice outside mainstream religion.
- equinoxSun crosses celestial midline
- divinationForetelling through mystical means
- solsticeDay of maximum tilt
- invocationCalling upon higher authority
- drawing downReducing accumulated reserves
fertility rites · maypole dance · Samhain · Beltane · altar · feast · initiation rites · shamanism · spellcasting · pentagram · sacred grove · stone circle · libation · heathenry · ceremony · incense · procession · pantheon
- witchcraftwitch, spell, spellwork, witches, spells
- British Folklorefairy, fairies, pixie, pixies, brownie
- Idolatryidol worship, false gods, idol, graven image, graven images
- Viking Scandinavialongships, runestones, Norse sagas, Norse gods, Odin
- Baltic folklorefolk beliefs, nature worship, midsummer, ancestral spirits, ancestor veneration
- Slavic paganismRod, Slavic mythology, sacred grove, sacred stones, holy wells
pagan ritualschurch services
Scheduled communal worship events
Christian worship · evangelical worship · baptism · Holy Communion · Eucharist
pagan ritualscivil ceremonies
Official non-religious observances
bureaucratic processes · scientific conferences · commercial transactions · civic duties