Ceremonial object, any object used in a ritual or a religious ceremony. Throughout the history of religions and cultures, objects used in cults, rituals, and sacred ceremonies have almost always been of both utilitarian and symbolic natures.

Ceremonial object - Ritual, Function, Symbol: In the form of magic or sacred words, singing, and music, sound plays or has played an important role in worship in most religions. The same is true of light and of aromatic substances, such as oils, perfumes, and incense.

Ceremonial object - Sacred Settings, Rituals, Symbols: Throughout history there is evidence of worship at natural sites as well as at sites constructed for ritualistic purposes.

Ceremonial object - Rituals, Symbols, Artifacts: In many religions the practice of prayer requires the use of certain objects, among which rosaries (strings of beads) and chaplets (circular strings of beads) occupy an important place in the popular piety.

Ceremonial object - Temple, State, Private: A large number of ordinary objects produced especially for the god have been used in the daily worship of divine statues. The most complete and best described rites were those practiced in ancient Assyria and Egypt and those still observed in the Vaishnavite temples of southeastern India.

Ceremonial object - Sacred Furniture, Rituals, Offerings: Whatever its size and form, a sacred area is usually delimited by an enclosure, such as a simple fence around sacred trees or Buddhist stupas or high walls with immense gates around temples.

Ceremonial object - Sacrifices, Meals, Rituals: The most elementary type of site in which a sacrifice is performed is simply a massive rock or a hilltop, with no accoutrements. Menhirs (e.g., the Hebrew matzeva, a conical stela rubbed with oil at the top), megaliths, and sacrificial posts (e.g., the Vedic yupa) are also quite rudimentary.

The principal objects involved in the initiation of Christian priests and monks are the tonsure and sacerdotal vestments. The Buryat shaman receives, in addition to a magical cloak and drum, a four-legged chest ( shiré ) decorated with lunar and solar symbols.

From a merely functional standpoint, such objects serve sacred or symbolic purposes; their construction, forms, dimensions, and styles have been, from earliest times, codified. Some have been so closely associated with the divine or the sacred that they have been considered either a symbolic manifestation of the deity or an actual manifestation ...

Ceremonial object - Plants, Representations: In all civilizations, plants and trees have been viewed as sacred. Generally, the tree is either a god’s habitat or the god itself and is worshipped. Such was the case, for example, in early Indian Buddhism.