Contains more than 120 articles on "religious beliefs expressed through ritualized behavior and festivals." Broad categories of coverage include:

• General concepts and ideas--such as communitas, inversion, purity and pollution, and pilgrimage.
• Major forms of rituals and festivals--such as rites of passage, devotional rites, sacrifice, calendrical rites, carnival, rites of conflict, and fasting.
• Religious rites and festivals of major religions and cultural regions. Entries discuss variation wthin the religion/culture/region
.
• Life cycle rites including those associated with birth, coming of age, marriage, and death.
• Specific rites and festivals--such as Easter, Christmas, Passover, Ramadan, potlatch, Ghost Dance, kava rituals, and snake handling.