Birth and death, the sun and the moon, gods and goddesses are all common themes that inspired early civilizations. Around the world many different ways of expressing devotion, delight, hope, thanks and grief have been devised, through rituals, carnivals, fetes and even sacrifice. In this dictionary, the author describes both the ceremonies and customs of the oldest civilizations, including the Babylonian, Chinese, Greek and Inca as well as the traditions of the Hindu, Sikh, Hebrew and Christian religions.