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Sacred Sites: Spiritual Tourism And Global Pilgrimages
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What Is Pilgrimage? Spiritual Seekers Share Their Experiences
Pilgrimage, a journey made for religious purposes. Although some pilgrims wander continuously without a fixed destination, pilgrims usually seek a special place that has been purified by communion with a deity or other holy figure. The institution of pilgrimage is evident in all religions of the world and played an important role in the pagan religions of ancient Greece and Rome.
Large pilgrimage centers can attract pilgrims from diverse cultural backgrounds and geographic locations to document the origins of their particular faith. Beginning in the 2nd or 3rd century, Christians traced biblical events, including the life of Jesus Christ, by visiting the Holy Land. Mecca is revered by Muslims as the birthplace of Muhammad (570 – 632), the Prophet of Islam after his expulsion from Paradise. According to Hindu tradition, Varanasi (Benares) was founded in the early days of creation and is the earthly home of Lord Shiva.
The Christian New Testament does not specifically command believers to go on a pilgrimage, but the sacred texts of other religious faiths do. Hajj (official pilgrimage) to Mecca is one of the five pillars of Islam. According to the Bible, shortly after he was given the Ten Commandments, the Hebrew prophet Moses received instructions at Mount Sinai requiring the Jews to come before the Lord three times a year. The Mahabharata, an important Hindu epic dating back to the 1st century BC, recommends visits to many of India’s holy places, mentioning shrines in order according to the sun’s movement across the sky. The Buddha himself designated certain places of pilgrimage, choosing places associated with important events in his life.
The Western Wall in Jerusalem, the only remnant of the Second Temple, is overlooked by the Dome of the Rock.
Day Holy Land Pilgrimage
Given its existence in different cultural and historical contexts, no single meaning can be attached to the pilgrimage. Structural similarities can be discerned across different traditions of sacred tourism. Pilgrimage usually involves some departure (alone or in a group) from the world of everyday life, and pilgrims may define their new identity by wearing special clothing or abstaining from physical comfort. Often, pilgrimage connects holy places with holy times. Hajj always takes place on the 8th, 9th and 10th days of the last month of the Muslim year. Historically, Jews visited the Temple in Jerusalem during the three annual festivals prescribed by the Law: Passover (commemorating the beginning of the exodus from slavery in Egypt), Shavuot (marking the giving of the Torah to Moses), and Sukkot (commemorating the temporary shelter used by the Israelites who fled Egypt). Hindu rituals mark specific phases of an individual’s life cycle and occur at points in the year determined to be auspicious by astronomical calculations.
Pilgrimages often involve ritual actions at the site itself, in addition to engaging in movement toward a sacred goal beyond the physical and cultural landscape. Performing the Stations of the Cross, which retells the events of Jesus’ passion, is a regular activity in Roman Catholic churches. Muslims walk seven times around the Kaaba, or central cube-shaped shrine, in Mecca. Buddhists call dome-shaped monuments a stupa. Among Hindus, the ideal pilgrimage involves traveling to the four holiest places in India
Another common feature of the pilgrimage is the presence of small souvenirs – souvenirs, holy water vessels, icons, etc. – that can bring the sanctity of the shrine back to the pilgrim’s home. Finally, pilgrimage sites focus on the material, although not on the same religious presuppositions. Muslim and Jewish sites avoid symbolic representations of divinity, but images are important on Catholic and Orthodox Christian sites. Statues of deities are central and essential to Hindu worship
Many factors determine the location of sacred sites. Shrines commemorate some great miracle or divine apparition of the past, but may also correspond to places sacred to old or rival faiths. Thus, when Buddhism was established as the dominant religion in Tibet, deities associated with local traditions were subordinated to the new religion, just as sacred sites such as Mount Kailash (in the Kailash range) became places of worship for Buddhism. Likewise, the missionary efforts of colonial powers in Africa and Latin America led to the creation of modified religious landscapes that, as in the case of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, combined pagan and Christian imagery and myth. Pilgrimage centers are often located in striking and remote geographical areas. In Hinduism, ritual bathing often takes place at the confluence of sacred rivers. The Ganges River is considered the most sacred Hindu river because it is believed to have flowed from a lock of Shiva’s hair.
Most Inspiring Catholic Pilgrimage Sites
The unifying element of pilgrimage sites in different religions is the sense that a particular place can confer special privileges on the divine or transcendental realms, expressed in various ways. This idea is well expressed in the concept of Hinduism
, a Sanskrit term that includes the concept of a ford or crossing between two realms. The same word is used by Jains for any site where the Prophet was born or died.
In all religious traditions, there is a clear hierarchy of sites, as some places are considered more sacred than others. For Hindus, Varanasi, one of the seven holy cities, has the power of giving
Or escape the cycle of rebirth. For medieval Catholicism, a visit to Jerusalem or Rome would have earned absolution rather than a journey to a lesser place. In North Africa, mausoleums consisting of saintly tombs lack the pan-Islamic status of Mecca or Medina, but provide access to holy figures, living or dead, who mediate God’s grace (
Sacred Sites: World Pilgrimage Guide
The motives of the Hajj are as varied as the traditions. A holy journey is often associated with a pious quest for ultimate salvation, but may also be motivated by more earthly purposes such as miraculous healing, fulfillment of vows, or repentance for wrongdoing. In the Middle Ages, the English shrine of Wirsingham was associated with the Virgin Mary and the Annunciation, which may have attracted women seeking solutions to fertility and infertility problems and encouraged identification with the Holy Mother. More recently, Virginia Marito’s 1917 apparition of three peasant children in Portugal glorifies the small village of the Fatima International Pilgrimage Site, with several healings and miracles linked. In addition, pilgrimage is associated with travel for over-worldly purposes, sometimes clearly combined. From the earliest times, the Hajj was an annual fair as well as a religious event and played an important commercial role under the Ottoman rulers. A Muslim pilgrim may have financed his journey to Mecca through trade, and for many centuries caravans to the city enjoyed the relative safety of large groups of pilgrims. The cultures of ancient Greece and Rome did not create boundaries between religious ritual and the secular world in the ways that are evident in the modern West, and festivals easily combined the celebration of the gods with urban commercial activities. The Crusades launched by the Second Pope in 1095 united elements of pilgrimage with penance and looting. Before the final armed assault on Muslim-held Jerusalem in July 1099, the crusaders fasted and walked around the city barefoot. The priests took the relics and preached to the military pilgrims on the Mount of Olives. Religious tourism is not a new concept. People have been making electronic trips to religious sites, but generally, these trips have been limited to the upper echelons of society. These people were clubbing religious, cultural and recreational activities to enjoy the trip. Today, religious tourism is a thriving market, with people traveling within their own countries and abroad to visit religious destinations because of their faith.
What is religious tourism? When a person travels to a place of pilgrimage primarily based on their religious beliefs, it is called religious travel. These pilgrims perform Hajj as a means of worship and salvation. However, there are Muslim and Jewish travelers because their religion is obligatory. Prevalence of Religious Tourism Although the main purpose of religious tourism is to worship, there are other reasons why tourists choose to use this form of tourism. Some of them are highlighted below:
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