Certain places, times, objects, and persons are set apart from ordinary use and treated with reverence. That quality of being set apart is the sacred. The sacred evokes awe and demands special behavior.

Sacred space may be a temple, shrine, or natural site. Sacred time structures the calendar with festivals and Sabbaths. Sacred texts and objects are handled according to precise rules. The boundary between sacred and profane is maintained by ritual and taboo.

Experience of the sacred can be both attractive and fearsome. It grounds moral obligation and communal identity. Secularization relocates or diminishes the publicly shared sacred, yet personal experiences of awe and the residual power of symbols persist. The sacred is the concentrated presence of what a tradition regards as ultimately real.

To call something sacred is to place it beyond casual disposal.