Supplication (also known as
petitioning) is the most common form of
prayer, wherein a person asks a
supernatural deity to provide something, either for that person who is praying or for someone else on whose behalf a prayer of supplication is being made. One example of supplication is the
Christian ritual of
novena[?] (from
novem, the Latin word for "nine") wherein one repeatedly asks for the same favor over a period of nine days. This ritual began in
France and
Spain during the
Middle Ages when a nine day period of hymns and prayers led up to a
Christmas feast, a period which ended with gift giving.