Ceremonial garbs are many times decorated with shells and were used in some religious ceremonies. North American Indians also made fetishes of shells. The Canadian Ojibwa tribe maintained a Grand Medicine Society in which the sacred emblem was a shell. Most shells will open to the right. The Hindu, when praying, often clasps a sacred Chank or other venerated object in his hands, believing that it will help his or her petitions be heard.
Priests also use it for holding sacred oils.
The Chank shell also plays a large role in Buddhist ritual music and ceremonies, and figures into Buddhist iconography. Pilgrims to this shrine purchased the simple but exquisite scallop shells and wore them as a sign of their pilgrimage to the shrine. This scallop also appears in many paintings and statues of this saint throughout Europe. Egypt, China and other cultures used the cowry in connection with their burials. Archaeological sites have produced shell trumpets that may have played a role in religious ceremonies.