Even the word is argued over
Religion comes from the Latin religio, and nobody is certain what that originally meant. The Roman writer Cicero linked it to relegere, to go over again or read carefully, as in performing a RITUAL exactly. Later Christian writers preferred religare, to bind, as in a bond between people and God. Both explanations are still quoted, and both say something true about how people practise a FAITH.
Many languages had no single word for religion until quite recently, because BELIEF, WORSHIP, law, family custom and daily life were not thought of as separate things. The idea of religion as one part of life you could compare across cultures is younger than most of the faiths themselves. The practice is far older than any word for it. Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, a ring of huge carved stone pillars built around 11,500 years ago, is often described as the oldest known TEMPLE — and it went up before people there had begun farming.
Counting prayers on beads
Prayer beads turn up across faiths that grew up far apart. Many Catholics pray the rosary, with beads arranged in groups of ten. Many Muslims use a string of 33 or 99 beads while reciting the 99 names of God. Hindus and Buddhists use a mala, traditionally of 108 beads, for repeating a mantra, and Sikhs use one too.
The beads do the same practical job in each: they keep count, so the mind can stay on the PRAYER instead of the arithmetic. Kneeling, standing, bowing and pressing the palms together are other shared ways of showing DEVOTION with the body, and a lit CANDLE is used for remembering, hoping and asking for a BLESSING in more faiths than can be listed here. Jewish families light a candle that burns for a full day on the anniversary of a relative's death, and Catholic churches have racks of small candles lit by visitors for someone they are praying for. See our world religions page for how the faiths themselves compare.
The oldest song in the world is a hymn
The oldest substantially complete piece of written music yet found is a HYMN. It was pressed into a clay tablet at Ugarit, in what is now Syria, around 3,400 years ago, and is a song to a moon goddess, with instructions for the lyre. Musicians have reconstructed how it may have sounded, though experts still disagree on how to read the notation.
Worship has been a driving force in music ever since. Church chant grew over many centuries into much of the classical tradition, and some of the best-known songs in English are hymns. Amazing Grace was written in the 1770s by John Newton, a former captain of slave ships who later campaigned to end the trade, and it is still sung at funerals, in churches and at sporting events. The rest of the grid holds the SACRED places and words shared by many faiths: the CHURCH, MOSQUE, SYNAGOGUE, TEMPLE and SHRINE, the BIBLE and other SCRIPTURE, the PILGRIM, the ANGEL, the SPIRIT, HEAVEN, the FESTIVAL, and PEACE, which appears in greetings from shalom and salaam to the sign of peace in church.