Belief, Rite, Practice, Festival

The distinctions are worth keeping. A belief is something held to be true or binding, an article of faith, a dietary law, a prohibition. A ritual is a formal rite performed on an occasion: a sacrament, an initiation, a rite of passage. A practice is an ongoing discipline (prayer, fasting, meditation, pilgrimage, study), kept up over time. A holiday is a day the calendar sets apart.

Each entry names the tradition, states the belief or describes the observance plainly, and gives the reason the tradition itself offers, so that related traditions can be compared on the same terms.