Outstanding mountains and hills are generally regarded as sacred, and are given religious meaning. Five high mountains, including Mount Kenya, visible from Gikuyu country, are believed to be sacred and to be the dwelling places of God when he visits the earth. The Gikuyu make their prayers facing Mount Kenya, the chief of their sacred mountains. Among many societies they are associated with spirits or divinities. For example, the Akamba say that they see fires of the spirits at night on the sides of the hills.
Some communities keep or use a 'holy' fire for religious purposes.
The Gikuyu perform a ceremony of purifying the crops when they begin to bear. Part of this ceremony involves lighting the holy fire and carrying it to all the regions. People look upon it as a 'purifying flame', and eagerly wait to catch it with twigs, in order to take it to their homes where the old fires have been put out. The new fire is not allowed to die out until the next season when the ceremony is repeated. This fire symbolizes the process of death and resurrection, and the conquest of renewal over destruction and degeneration.