NEW YORK, May 15 (Reuters) - Keeping spiritual faith and observing religion in the ancient ways of their ancestors is done with sacred devotion by many people.
So what role can modern day marvel the Internet play in maintaining traditions that in some cases are thousands of years old?
The World Wide Web is abound with places to shop for religious-themed merchandise, whether it be ornaments, gifts for weddings and other special events, whimsical presents, or tools used in ceremonies.
Doing a search on a site like Yahoo.com or Google.com (http://www.yahoo.com and http://www.google.com) will unlock a trove of religious oriented sites for shoppers.
Catholicshopper.com (http://www.catholicshopper.com) offers more than 6,500 products that include angel nightlights and figurines, holy water fonts, auto visor clips featuring the patron saint of travel St. Christopher, and supplies for churches such as chalices and baptismal oils.
Frank and Lisa Pollicino of Nesconset, New York, run the site out of their Catholic Shopper retail store on Long Island, and have been on the Web since 1996.
One of the most unique and popular products offered at the site is the Inspirational Sport Statue. Actually statuettes measuring from 4-3/4 to 6-1/2 inches tall, the figures depict Jesus Christ engaged in 12 athletic activities including baseball, football, hockey and skiing, with a pair of children.
"The perfect gift for every young Catholic athlete," the Web site says.
"I would say 80 percent of our sales are done through the Web site," Frank Pollicino said. "It's mostly lay people. We don't do a lot of selling to churches directly."
Pollicino said the sports figures are selling like hot cakes, in no small part because of the exposure they've gotten on television shows like "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."
"We've also seen an increase in sales of St. Rita metals, which played a big part in the recent movie 'The Rookie'," he added, referring to the Dennis Quaid film in which a high school baseball coach experiences the "miracle" of making it to the major leagues while in his mid-30s.
"People love buying on our site because it gives them access to products they otherwise wouldn't have," Pollicino said. "In urban areas, this kind of (retail) store is easy to find, but in places like rural Texas, you might have to drive two days to find a shop like this. Our niche is to make these products available."
High quality Christian puzzles and games can be found at http://www.allblessed.com, including a 500-piece puzzle of the famous painting "The Last Supper", while http://www.faithandgrace.com offers products from ties and tote bags to hand-crafted wall crosses and biblical wallpaper borders.
Jewish Web surfers looking to find that great Bar or Bat Mitzvah gift, prayer shawls, a traditional canopy called a chuppah, or even a circumcision ceremony kit complete with an embroidered pillow, will have no shortage of options.
Allthingsjewish.com (http://www.allthingsjewish.com) carries more than 4,000 items and its co-founder, Encino, California-based Harry Nelson, echoed Pollicino's comments that availability for consumers who don't have local retail buying opportunities is a main attraction.
"It's blown us away, the way the Net is connecting people," Nelson said. "And even if people did live close to a shop, the Internet is allowing people to buy an array of things you might not be able to find in some stores.
"We see a huge amount of our business, somewhere close to a third or even up to 40 percent, coming from people living in places like Georgia, or Northern California or Oregon, where Jewish communities may be comprised of no more than a few hundred people," he added.
Nelson said some products try to touch on contemporary themes, which can prove to be both light-hearted and solemn.
"The Gore/Lieberman 2000 yarmulke was very popular, as was the T-shirt of (slain Wall Street Journal reporter) Daniel Pearl, which was just a picture of Pearl with the words 'I am a Jew' written beneath."
Pearl was reportedly forced to utter that statement just before being killed by kidnappers following his abduction in Pakistan in January.
Shopping specifically for Jewish children can be done at http://www.chaikids.com, where "Manny the Electronic Menorah" and action figure "Judah Maccabee, Hanukkah Hero" can be found.
Cyber shoppers looking for items with a Muslim theme can pick up everything from books and clothing to prayer mats and jewelry at http://www.simplymuslim.com.
The Manchester, England-based site sells Islamic essentials like Azan clocks, which like an alarm clock, sound an alert when it is time for each of the five daily calls to prayer. Also available are a variety of fashionable compasses used for finding the direction, or Qiblah, toward the holy site in Mecca that Muslims must pray toward.
Atif Darr, who runs the Web site, says that in addition to Muslim essentials he also sells a large amount of hats and caps, and a good portion of those sales are due more to fashion trends than religion.
"Denzel Washington wore a crocheted Afghan cap in his latest movie, and that's helped them become a bit fashionable," Darr said. "The media exposure of the conflict in Afghanistan seemed to sell hats, and we're also selling a lot of Palestinian-style caps to Americans with names that don't sound Muslim. It's very interesting."
Darr says he also sells Muslim-based music by Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, who gave up the pop life and converted to Islam more than 20 years ago, and now runs his own site at http://www.mountainoflight.co.uk.
For marriages that bring two religions under the same roof, http://www.interfaithweddingmall.com provides the opportunity to get merchandise for families of more than one faith.
Holiday seasonal greetings cards feature Santa Claus and a rabbi not only participating in both Christian and Jewish observances, but also sleigh riding together and building a snowman.
The site offers a number of wedding accessories like cake servers and ribbons for glasses used in the toast that have interlocking Christian crosses and Stars of David.
Shoppers looking for merchandise related to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints can go to http://www.allmormon.com, while http://www.bodhistore.com features books, incense and other items related to Buddhism.
(The Livewire column appears weekly.)