ritually

Updated: May 16, 2025

Meanwhile, and above all, the negligent Vestal must be punished; and at once the sacred fire must be ritually rekindled. The ritual rekindling worried and exhausted Bambilio not a little. The procedure was traditional and rigidly prescribed in every detail.

Edward Lucas White - The Unwilling Vestal

The use of water for ceremonial purification has been, and is, practiced all over the world, alike by savages and by civilized peoples: the newborn child, ritually impure by reason of the mystery of birth, is bathed or sprinkled; before the performance of a sacred act the officiator must bathe; numerous ablutions are prescribed in the Old Testament; similar usages obtained among the Egyptians, the Hindus and the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans, the Chinese and the Japanese, the Mexicans and the Peruvians, and other peoples.

Crawford Howell Toy - Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV