FW - wouldn't that be a routine, same as Jane:

'I don't think ritual (or habit) has anything (necessarily) to do with religion. I like my getting-up-in-the-morning rituals, but that doesn't make me religious or even vaguely spiritual.'

Wouldn't this be a routine, a familiar bahavioural pattern or action repeated out of habit, as opposed to a ritual?

Jane mentioned C4's 'The root of all evil'. I think it would make good viewing. I personally think that we would have much more understanding of the ancient world had the catholics not wiped out most of any other religion's writings up to about 300 years ago. Look what they did to the Aztecs for example. Or is that too militant to say?