Rosary

The Rosary (from the Latin for "rose garland") is a devotional set of prayers that is used by Roman Catholics. The actual name refers to a string of beads used to "count off" each prayer in the devotional set, generally one "Our Father", ten "Hail Mary's" and one "Glory be...". The person praying generally meditates on various events in the life of Jesus (the Mysteries of the Rosary). The entire rosary cycle (called a decade) is counted from 5 to 15 large, distinct beads (depending on the length of the rosary) which counts of each "Our Father". Monks, nuns and priests often carry the large 15 decade long rosary as a formal ornament on their garments. The rosary arises out of, and is central to the veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

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Praying the Rosary is generally used to cleanse you of your sins especially after confession. In more uncommon circumstances it can be used to pray deceased relatives out of Purgatory.

In specialist woo, wearing the rosary will protect the wearer from the Evil Eye, from curses, and of course from the big bad guy himself, Satan.

Modified rosary prayers pop up in strange places, including some right-wingers engaging in campaigns to pray the Rosary so God will "end abortion".

Rosary and healing

Real live actual science has found that praying the Rosary (and meditating, chanting "ohm", or fixedly listing the names of your 123 lovers out loud, in a single slow rhythmic pattern) has strong healing properties[1], as it releases endorphins that lower both heart rate and blood pressure, causing your mind to let go of obsessive and stressful thoughts. Over time, this can change the structure of the hypothalamus - a change that lowers the effects of physical (medical) depression. Of course all these studies show that the effects are because of events happening in the brain, as you focus on a simple thought, word, song or sound, and not due to any intervention of a divine being who feels inclined to take away your stress simply because He's having a good day.

Buddhists, Hindus, and some Native American tribes have rosary like chains of beads or other counters to click off their own prayers, meditations, or names of 10000 gods.

gollark: Oh, those arguably completely useless things, yes.
gollark: No it's not.
gollark: Ah, like in lisps, kind of.
gollark: What are these fancy-sounding things?
gollark: That's a better idea. Maybe ask the entire simulated population of Earth too.

References
  1. http://www.crystalinks.com/medbrain.html
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