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The Pentecost pilgrimage to Csíksomlyó is one of the largest annual religious gatherings in Romania. Meanwhile, two smaller pilgrimages take place in the Csík valley each year, one to visit and leave wildflowers at a statue of Saint Anthony, and another to remember the murder of a 16th-century cardinal.

Pictures of saints and the Virgin Mary on refrigerator doors, kitchen cabinets, and bookcases are not only a way of decorating the home, but they also help people pray and play an important role in providing religious education for children.

Like at a European concert festival, music is a major attraction at the Csíksomlyó Youth Gathering. The young people in the crowd jump, dance, shout, and sing along to well-known Charismatic Catholic songs.

Just before Lent, villagers in the Ciuc Valley hold a raucous procession called the "Carnival Burial," which ends with the burning of a straw man. At Easter, families present their food baskets for blessings by the parish priest, while young men go "watering" neighborhood women like flowers with water or perfume.

Everyday life in the ethnic Hungarian Catholic enclave can look and feel just as devout as in Orthodox Christian and Romanian parts of the country — from devotional cards and rosaries on buses to the noontime church bells heard far and wide. Catholics in Romania are comfortable with these signs of religious observance that mostly go unnoticed as people go about their daily business.

A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, “Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa,” sheds light on a number of aspects Tanzanian culture.1 1The Tanzanian portion of the survey was conducted in 2008-9 in Kiswahili and English in all 21 regions of mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. The margin of error for these data is 4% for questions referring to all Tanzanians, 5% for questions relating only to Christians, and 6% for questions related to Muslims. See http://www.pewforum.org/files/2010/04/sub-saharan-africa-full-report.pdf for the report and African

Julius Nyerere is most famous for his envisioning and implementation of ujamaa (familyhood) socialism in the late 1960s and 1970s. Here Nyerere attempted to marry the ideals of modern Catholic social teaching, the communitarian ethos of traditional African society, and socialist economic theory.

Traditional healing, witchcraft and exorcisms are part of the fabric of spiritual life. Witchcraft is greatly feared, especially among Christians.

As in much of Africa, the Tanzanian Catholic Church plays an outsized role in providing educational, medical and social services. Catholic-affiliated street ministries are also making a big impact on social provision.

The choir dominates the Tanzanian Mass, and no song is complete without choreographed movement including stamping feet, swaying arms, clapping, and sometimes even cries of joy.