Prayer beads in the context of "Umbanda"

A home altar or family altar is a shrine kept in the home of some Western Christian families used for Christian prayer and family worship. Home altars often contain a cross or crucifix, an image of Jesus Christ, a copy of the Bible (especially a Family Bible), a breviary and/or other prayer book, a daily devotional, and prayer beads, among other religious articles specific to the individual's Christian denomination, for example, the images of the saints for Catholics, the Small Catechism for Lutherans, and the Anglican prayer beads for Anglicans.

The Rosary (/ˈroʊzəri/; Latin: rosarium, in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), formally known as the Psalter of Jesus and Mary (Latin: Psalterium Jesu et Mariae), also known as the Dominican Rosary (as distinct from other forms of rosary such as the Franciscan Crown, Bridgettine Rosary, Rosary of the Holy Wounds, etc.), refers to a set of prayers used primarily in the Catholic Church, and to the physical string of knots or beads used to count the component prayers. When referring to the prayer, the word is usually capitalized ("the Rosary", as is customary for other names of prayers, such as "the Lord's Prayer", and "the Hail Mary"); when referring to the prayer beads as an object, it is written with a lower-case initial letter (e.g. "a rosary bead").

The prayers that compose the Rosary are arranged in sets of ten Hail Marys, called "decades". Each decade is preceded by one Lord's Prayer ("Our Father"), and traditionally followed by one Glory Be. Some Catholics also recite the "O my Jesus" prayer after the Glory Be; it is the best-known of the seven Fátima prayers that appeared in the early 20th century. Rosary prayer beads are an aid for saying these prayers in their proper sequence.

A misbaha (Arabic: مِسْبَحَة, romanized: misbaḥa), subḥa (Arabic: سُبْحَة) Gulf countries people call it Mesbah (Arabic: مِسْبَاَحْ) (Arabic and Urdu), tusbaḥ (Somali), tasbīḥ (Arabic: تَسْبِيح) (Iran, India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia), or tespih (Turkish, Bosnian and Albanian) is a set of prayer beads often used by Muslims for the tasbih, the recitation of prayers (the dhikr), as well as to glorify Allah. It resembles the japamala used in Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, or the rosary used in Catholicism. The Arab/Iranian/Turkish and their neighbors put a lot of care as to what materials are used, generally being gems, beads and so forth.