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- Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India. The spiritual hub of Buddhism is India's Bodh Gaya, whose famous fig tree was said to have sheltered Siddhartha Guatama as he meditated for seven days during his quest for enlightenment.
- St. Paul Trail, Turkey. This rugged 310-mile (500-kilometer) trail partly follows St. Paul’s journeyto spread Christianity. Leading from Perg or Aspendos to Antioch, the route forges past fragrant pine forests and mirage-like lakes.
- March for Jobs and Freedom, Washington, D.C. Photos of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedomshow a sea of people flooding the National Mall and enjoying the festive mood.
- St. Patrick’s Footsteps, Ireland. To retrace St. Patrick's steps, you can either retreat to the island of Lough Derg, or climb—barefoot is the custom—Croagh Patrick.
- Jerusalem, Israel. One of the most well-known pilgrimage sites in the world is Jerusalem. According to the Hebrew Bible, all Jewish followers should to make this pilgrimage during their lifetimes.
- Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The other big pilgrimage site that most people have heard of is the holy city of Mecca, which is located in present-day Saudi Arabia.
- Mount Kailash, Tibet. The oldest pilgrimage site on the planet is thought to be Mount Kailash in Tibet. For over 15,000 years, people have believed that circling the mountain along a 52-kilometer trek will bring them good fortune.
- Guanajuato, Mexico. The Sanctuary of Atotonilco has been referred to as the Sistine Chapel of Mexico because it’s a beautiful church that’s become a popular pilgrimage site.
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- Overview
- General considerations
- Meaning and motivations of pilgrimage
pilgrimage, a journey undertaken for a religious motive. Although some pilgrims have wandered continuously with no fixed destination, pilgrims more commonly seek a specific place that has been sanctified by association with a divinity or other holy personage. The institution of pilgrimage is evident in all world religions and was also important in ...
Great centres of pilgrimage attract visitors from widely dispersed cultural backgrounds and geographic locations, often enabling them to commemorate the origins of their particular faith. Since the 2nd or 3rd century ce, Christians have traced the events of the Bible, including the life of Jesus Christ himself, through visits to the Holy Land. Mecca is revered by Muslims as the dwelling place of Adam after his expulsion from paradise and as the birthplace of Muhammad (570–632), the prophet of Islam. According to Hindu tradition, Varanasi (Benares) was founded at the dawn of creation and is the earthly home of Lord Shiva.
The Christian New Testament does not specifically enjoin believers to go on pilgrimage, but sacred texts in other religious faiths do. A hajj (formal pilgrimage) to Mecca is one of the five Pillars of Islam. According to the Bible, immediately after he was given the Ten Commandments, the Hebrew prophet Moses received instructions on Mount Sinai that required the Jewish people to appear before the Lord three times a year. The Mahabharata, an important Hindu epic dating from the 1st millennium bce, recommends visits to many holy places in India, mentioning shrines in an order corresponding to the Sun’s movement across the sky. The Buddha himself prescribed certain places of pilgrimage, choosing sites linked with key events in his life.
Given its presence in so many different cultural and historical contexts, no single meaning can be attributed to the act of pilgrimage. Structural similarities are discernible, however, across disparate traditions of sacred travel. Pilgrimage usually entails some separation (alone or in a group) from the everyday world of home, and pilgrims may mark their new identity by wearing special clothes or abstaining from physical comforts. Frequently, pilgrimages link sacred place with sacred time. The hajj always occurs on the 8th, 9th, and 10th days of the last month of the Muslim year. Historically, Jews would visit the temple of Jerusalem during three annual festivals, as prescribed in Deuteronomy: Passover (in remembrance of the beginning of the Exodus from bondage in Egypt), Shavuot (marking the giving of the Law to Moses), and Sukkoth (recalling the temporary shelters used by the Israelites who fled from Egypt). Hindu pilgrimages mark particular phases of the life cycle of the individual and often occur at points in the year identified as auspicious by astrological calculations.
Apart from involving movement across physical and cultural landscapes toward a sacred goal, pilgrimages frequently involve ritual movements at the site itself. Performing the Stations of the Cross, which reenact the events of Jesus’ Passion, is a frequent activity at Roman Catholic shrines. Muslims walk seven times around the Kaʿbah, or central cube-shaped shrine, at Mecca. Buddhists circumambulate dome-shaped reliquaries called stupas. Among Hindus, perhaps the ideal pilgrimage would involve a journey around the four most sacred sites in India (the dhamas), covering the country in an auspicious clockwise direction.
A further common feature of pilgrimages is the availability of small souvenirs—relics, containers of holy water, icons, and so on—that allow the sacredness of a shrine to be transported back to the pilgrim’s home. Finally, pilgrimage sites tend to have a material focus, even though the nature of that focus varies according to the assumptions of the religion. Muslim and Jewish sites avoid iconic representations of divinity, but images are important in Catholic and Orthodox Christian sites. Statues of gods are central to Hindu worship and necessary for darshan, the beneficial gaze that passes between pilgrim and deity.
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Numerous factors determine the location of sacred sites. Shrines memorialize some great miracle or divine appearance from the past but may also appropriate the places that are holy to an older or rival faith. Thus, as Buddhism was established as the dominant religion in Tibet, deities associated with indigenous traditions were subordinated to those of the new religion, just as sacred spots such as Mount Kailas (in the Kailas Range) were turned into Buddhist pilgrimage sites. Similarly, the missionary efforts of colonial powers in Africa and Latin America led to the creation of modified religious landscapes, often combining pagan and Christian imagery and myth, as is evident in the case of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. Pilgrimage centres are frequently situated in striking and remote geographical areas. In Hinduism ritual bathing often takes place at the confluences of rivers, which are imbued with sacred meaning. The Ganges is regarded as the holiest Hindu river because it is believed to issue from the very locks of Shiva’s hair.
The tradition of the cult of the saints and pilgrimage to holy places is historically evidenced and was largely suppressed at the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. This tradition of pilgrimage has been revived in modern times and is now part of the rich tapestry of our history, archaeology, faith and heritage.
For example, an ivory carved around 1120 depicts the risen Christ with the two disciples who met him on the road to Emmaus; they are shown as contemporary pilgrims, with walking sticks, a vessel for water, and a purse marked with a cross ( 17.190.47 ).
Nov 26, 2020 · The story of the pilgrims of Plymouth Colony is well known regarding the basic facts: they sailed on the Mayflower, arrived off the coast of Massachusetts on 11 November 1620, came ashore at Plymouth Rock, half of them died the first winter, and the survivors established the first successful colony in New England.
The Origins of the Terms 'Pilgrim' and 'Pilgrimage' 'Pilgrim' and 'pilgrimage' are words that have carried a range of meanings over the centuries. The English term 'pilgrim' originally comes from the Latin word peregrinus (per, through + ager, field, country, land), which means a foreigner, a stranger, someone on a journey, or a temporary ...
