Importance of Religion

I was raised in a family where religion was always an important part of my life. My family and especially my grandparents have always been very religious people. When I was about 4 or 5, I used to go to with my grandma to the hindu temple which is called a mandir every other day. I use to know many of the religious songs, chants and prayers by my head but over time I have forgotten many of them. Nowadays I only get to go to the temple once or twice a year for the holidays. Every couple of weeks and usually during the summertime I get to go to lots of religious functions which are great not just for the delicious sweets I get to eat after the rituals but also for the feeling of spirituality I get from listening to the religious mantras and verses. After going to so many functions I can say that I know the rituals by heart now. Every year, around the time of my birthday my mom arranges a small religious work at our house to bless our family and to bring good fortune for the future. We all sit and do the rituals together. On that day and the day before that we aren't allowed to eat meat or anything with eggs in them. For all the religious holidays that we celebrate we don't eat meat or things made with egg on those days. It's not really that hard to do since it's only for a day. We have a small room for prayer in the house which is called the altar room. It is covered with big pictures of some of the hindu gods and goddesses. My mom and dad pray everyday. Even though I don't pray everyday I do try to thank god when good things happen as often as possible even though I probably still ask for things more. Religion has not only given me spirituality but has also shaped my morals. My parents are both very religious and I believe that it has given them strong morals in working hard and trying to do the right thing. They have passed on these morals to me and I feel like religion has given me an idea of how to do well in life.