tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/pilgrimage-34016/articlesPilgrimage – The Conversation2024-03-26T12:41:28Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2262932024-03-26T12:41:28Z2024-03-26T12:41:28ZAn annual pilgrimage during Holy Week brings thousands of believers to Santuario de Chimayó in New Mexico, where they pray for healing and protection<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583549/original/file-20240321-30-z27kej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C4%2C2968%2C2182&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thousands of Catholics travel by foot to Santuario de Chimayo, in northern New Mexico, during an annual Good Friday pilgrimage.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CatholicPilgrimageNewMexico/27b7d518d220496e8911f7b0c20bf07d/photo?Query=Chimay%C3%B3%20New%20Mexico%20pilgrimage&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=14&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo/Morgan Lee</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For decades, the people of northern New Mexico have marked the Christian observance of Good Friday with a walking pilgrimage to the Santuario de Chimayó in the village of Chimayó, New Mexico.</p>
<p>Referring to themselves as <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/hispano-music-and-culture-from-the-northern-rio-grande/articles-and-essays/nuevo-mexicanos-of-the-upper-rio-grande-culture-history-and-society/english/">Hispanos</a>, or Nuevomexicanos, they have lived in the region for generations, tracing their descent from Spanish colonists who arrived to New Mexico in the 17th and 18th centuries. Nuevomexicanos’ Catholicism developed at the far northern frontier of the Spanish Empire; a scarcity of priests led to the flourishing of many popular devotions in New Mexico, including the pilgrimage to Chimayó. </p>
<p>Built in the early 1800s, the santuario is a small church, built of adobe bricks, with a unique feature: In a little room adjacent to the church’s central worship space, there is a hole in the floor, the “pocito,” filled with the sandy earth of the area. </p>
<p>For at least 200 years, Nuevomexicano Catholics have used dirt from the pocito for its purported miraculous healing qualities. They rub it on their aches and pains, they hold it to focus their prayers, and, historically, ingested it. </p>
<p>In 2015, I participated in the annual pilgrimage as part of the research for <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479884278/the-healing-power-of-the-santuario-de-chimayo/">my book</a>, “The Healing Power of the Santuario de Chimayó: America’s Miraculous Church.” The santuario’s story is not merely a curiosity but also a significant part of the shifting identity of the U.S. Catholic Church, which is on the verge of becoming <a href="https://vencuentro.org/consultation-report/">majority-Latino</a>.</p>
<h2>Legendary origins of santuario’s holy dirt</h2>
<p>The source of the pocito dirt’s power for Hispano pilgrims is linked to two images of Christ.</p>
<p>The first is a large crucifix called the Señor de Esquipulas, or Lord of Esquipulas. Named for a famous and much older <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9780803268432/">Guatemalan Christ</a> figure also known as the Señor de Esquipulas, the crucifix lies at the heart of the most common origin story for the santuario’s holy dirt. </p>
<p>The legend goes that in 1810, a Chimayó community leader and landowner named Bernardo Abeyta witnessed light coming out of the ground in one of his fields. Upon examination, he is said to have discovered the crucifix partially buried in the soil. He dug it up and brought it to the nearest church at the time, some 8 miles away. </p>
<p>The crucifix, however, is believed to have returned on its own to the hole in Abeyta’s field. Given this sign, Abeyta sought and received permission to build a chapel around the hole, a chapel today known as the Santuario de Chimayó.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A brightly painted church altar with Jesus on the cross." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Interior view of Santuario de Chimayo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/highsm.66247/">Carol M Highsmith/Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Señor de Esquipulas crucifix hangs on the main altar screen in the santuario, and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe has promoted the story of its miraculous provenance. </p>
<p>A second Christ image, however, is by far the more popular among Hispano pilgrims. The <a href="https://www.unmpress.com/9780826347107/crossing-borders-with-the-santo-ninyo-de-atocha/">Santo Niño de Atocha</a> is a depiction of the Christ child dressed as a medieval pilgrim and is popular throughout northern Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border region. A statue of the Holy Child is ensconced in the santuario in a room adjacent to the pocito.</p>
<p>For pilgrims, a visit to the santuario typically includes time in prayer in front of the Holy Child, where they ask for healing and protection for themselves, their children and other loved ones. They take home dirt from the pocito as a reminder and vehicle of Christ’s power to answer their prayers.</p>
<h2>The annual pilgrimage</h2>
<p>Hispano residents in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado made pilgrimages to the santuario for healing throughout the 19th century, but the massive walking pilgrimage during Holy Week, culminating on Good Friday, did not begin until after World War II. </p>
<p>Hundreds of members of New Mexico’s 200th Coast Artillery had endured the 1942 <a href="https://historyinsantafe.com/200th-coast-artillery-bataan-death-march/#:%7E:text=New%20Mexico's%20Veteran's%20Administration%20is,joined%2075%2C000%20prisoners%20of%20war">Bataan Death March</a>, in which thousands of U.S. and Filipino prisoners of war were forced by the Japanese Imperial Army to walk for miles through the Philippines. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161130144025/http://www.bataanmuseum.com/bataanhistory/">Many died</a> from either torture or exhaustion.</p>
<p>Upon returning home, Nuevomexicano survivors organized a walking pilgrimage to the santuario in 1946 to commemorate their suffering and to mourn their lost comrades. <a href="https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/american_latino_heritage/el_santuario_de_chimayo.html">This pilgrimage</a> soon evolved into an annual observance not only for veterans but also for Hispano Catholics in general.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lrI7QxKpGHQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The pilgrimage of Santuario de Chimayo.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the santuario throughout the year, but the pilgrimage during Holy Week – the week before the celebration of Easter – is the high point. Good Friday, the day on which Christians believe that Jesus was crucified and died, attracts approximately <a href="https://stateecu.com/a-guide-to-holy-week-pilgrimages-to-el-santuario-de-chimayo/">30,000 walking pilgrims</a>, some coming from as far away as Albuquerque, 90 miles away. Others choose shorter routes, including a popular 9-mile walk from the nearby town of Española. </p>
<h2>Latino Catholics</h2>
<p>The santuario’s popularity continues to rise along with the numbers of Latino Catholics in the U.S.</p>
<p>The demographic shift in the U.S. Catholic Church toward a <a href="https://vencuentro.org/consultation-report/">Latino majority</a> is well underway. <a href="https://theology.nd.edu/people/timothy-matovina/">Timothy Matovina</a>, a professor at the University of Notre Dame, writes in <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691163574/latino-catholicism">his book</a>, “Latino Catholicism: Tranformation in America’s Largest Church,” that Latinos represent one-third of all U.S. Catholics and make up more than half of the U.S. Catholic population under the age of 25.</p>
<p>He also notes that, because of Latino population growth, the proportion of Catholics in California and Texas has increased since 1990, while the proportion in Massachusetts and New York has dropped. This demographic shift means devotional sites, like the santuario, that have Latino Catholic origins and immense popularity can expect to grow in importance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226293/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brett Hendrickson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the Santuario de Chimayó throughout the year, but the pilgrimage during the week before the celebration of Easter is the high point.Brett Hendrickson, Professor of Religious Studies, Lafayette College Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2168902023-11-20T13:17:41Z2023-11-20T13:17:41ZWhat a biannual gathering of 1967 Impalas reveals about the blurry line between fandom and religion<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559492/original/file-20231115-25-wna49s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C81%2C2992%2C2123&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the cult TV series 'Supernatural,' the car driven by the two protagonists is a star in its own right.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Natasha Mikles</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Among the many spooky events happening over Halloween weekend was the biannual “Haunting of Impalas” at Family Business Brewing, a 15-acre brewery in Dripping Springs, Texas, owned by actor and musician Jensen Ackles. </p>
<p>Along with Jared Padalecki, Ackles is the star of “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460681/">Supernatural</a>,” a television series that ran from 2005 to 2020. </p>
<p>A weekly science-fiction show akin to “The X-Files,” “Supernatural” follows two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, as they drive in a classic 1967 Chevrolet Impala across the U.S., fighting monsters and uncovering their convoluted family past. Show creator <a href="https://www.appeal-democrat.com/supernatural-impala/article_052d3db8-efcf-543e-9415-ac878d13a4d0.html">Eric Kripke</a> has described the show as “a modern American Western – two gunslingers who ride into town, fight the bad guys, kiss the girl and ride out into the sunset again.” </p>
<p>With a subtle nod to the show’s tagline: “Saving People, Hunting Things – The Family Business,” <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimdobson/2018/05/03/supernatural-star-jensen-ackles-opens-a-new-texas-brewery-and-keeps-it-all-in-the-family/?sh=4cceec783796">Ackles opened the brewery in 2017</a>. It has since become a popular destination for fans of the TV series. </p>
<p>“Supernatural” has been called a <a href="https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a405263/supernatural-the-fall-and-rise-of-the-cws-cult-drama/">“cult” drama</a>, with <a href="https://www.creationent.com/cal/supernatural_sf.htm">conventions that draw fans from</a> all over the country. Religious terms like cult are often used to convey how serious the fandom is. But as two <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4EKx-aoAAAAJ&hl=en">scholars of</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MoKFgEgAAAAJ&hl=en">religion</a>, we see the connection between fandom and religion as one that’s stronger and deeper than many people might realize.</p>
<h2>If you build it, they will come</h2>
<p>The Haunting of Impalas – fans call a gathering of the cars a “haunting” – has been held at the brewery as a free event since 2019, first as a casual meet-up and then as an official event sponsored by the brewery. </p>
<p>As much a character on the show as Ackles and Padalecki themselves, <a href="https://supernatural.fandom.com/wiki/The_Impala">the characters’ black 1967 Impala</a> has become iconic for fans. Elaborating on the debt “Supernatural” owes to Westerns, show writer <a href="https://www.appeal-democrat.com/supernatural-impala/article_052d3db8-efcf-543e-9415-ac878d13a4d0.html">Kripke said of the Impala</a>, “If you’re going to have cowboys, they need a trusty horse.” </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Trunk of car opened with weapons displayed, with two jugs of beer and a cooler in the foreground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Each car has its trunk filled with objects recreated from the show.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=548507675853451&set=pb.100065145835517.-2207520000">A Haunting of Impalas/Facebook</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>The car serves as the brothers’ home on the road, as their protection from evil and as a repository of monster-hunting weapons. In a nod to the car’s central role, some devoted fans of the show have since bought and restored black 1967 Impalas, which they bring together at the Haunting of Impalas event. </p>
<p>Fans have lovingly recreated each Impala – sometimes even accurate to a specific episode. Lined up, each car reveals a secret trunk compartment filled with weapons from the show, such as vampire-killing machetes, silver bullets for werewolves and holy water for demons.</p>
<p>Further care is taken to reflect other details found in the Impala over the seasons: a small green army man stuck in the ashtray or a partially eaten pie. At the brewery, four Impalas, as well as one <a href="https://www.imcdb.org/v687978.html">AMC Gremlin</a> that appeared in several episodes, were lined up for examination as close to 100 people milled about in the hour we visited. The social media accounts for the brewery registered over 1,500 RSVPs, and one organizer estimated that roughly 1,000 people were in attendance over the course of the day.</p>
<h2>‘People just want to have an experience’</h2>
<p>In our work, we’ve seen this behavior before. But it’s been in churches and temples rather than the parking lot of a brewery. </p>
<p>Spectators approached the Impalas with a hesitant reverence, eager to touch the trunk or take a photo sitting in the driver’s seat. One Impala received special interest, as it had actually been used in Season 12 of the show – a fact at least a dozen individuals told us in hushed tones. Its owner hovered around the car with a polishing cloth to quickly whisk away any fingerprints left by visiting fans, but was eager to point out each place an actor had signed the car or otherwise left their mark.</p>
<p>Many of the Impalas at the event had been driven across the country for days to participate. Organizer Travis Perdue, a fan in his early 40s, could tick off the whereabouts of other “Supernatural” Impalas – and the owners who had been too sick to come or otherwise detained.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black and yellow vintage cars lined up in a field." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559460/original/file-20231114-15-uxa7kv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559460/original/file-20231114-15-uxa7kv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559460/original/file-20231114-15-uxa7kv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559460/original/file-20231114-15-uxa7kv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559460/original/file-20231114-15-uxa7kv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559460/original/file-20231114-15-uxa7kv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559460/original/file-20231114-15-uxa7kv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some fans drive their Impalas across the country to participate in the biannual event.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/177108586326697/photos/pb.100065145835517.-2207520000/544828619554690/?type=3">A Haunting of Impalas/Facebook</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>When asked if this event felt spiritual, Perdue explained, “It’s not about the cars; it’s not about the weapons. It’s something else. People just want to have an experience.” </p>
<p>He said that he frequently sees fans getting emotional near the cars. More than a handful of them have burst into tears. He said one person even passed out upon seeing the restored Impala. </p>
<p>We witnessed one man loudly tell his wife, with tears in his eyes, “If I had one of these, I could die happy.” </p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=GMrhDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Elementary+Forms&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjk0ovl1LqCAxXjlmoFHT8qA8EQ6AF6BAgFEAI#v=onepage&q=Elementary%20Forms&f=false">Sociologist Emile Durkheim has written</a> that when people encounter their community’s sacred symbols, it can overwhelm them – that the feelings these objects inspire act like “material forces that mechanically generate physical effects.”</p>
<p>The Impalas are not the only potent symbols on display at the event, either. Most of the attendees wore some sort of Supernatural-themed apparel – a shirt, a bag or even a tattoo. </p>
<p>Inside several of the cars were facsimiles of the monster-hunting journal written by John Winchester, Sam and Dean’s father in the show. Each journal featured dozens of hand-inked pages, recreations of newspaper articles, a pin for military service in Vietnam and eerie photographs. Like monks producing <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/programs/teachers-and-students/teaching-the-arts/five-ideas/medieval-illuminated-manuscripts">illuminated manuscripts</a>, a team of fans crafted each journal by hand. </p>
<p>Perdue, who’s worked on the journals, explained that the first facsimile took eight months of research to design, and each subsequent copy took six weeks to produce. They sell them to other fans for $650, and Perdue has a waitlist of dozens of people. But the group makes no money off the journals. Rather, he is motivated by the joy of making such a precious item for other fans.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Open notebook with handwritten notes in it next to two FBI badges." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some fans have painstakingly recreated the monster-hunting journal from the show.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Natasha Mikles</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fandom as religion or vice versa?</h2>
<p><a href="https://mdsoar.org/handle/11603/25282">Many scholars </a> have noted the religious aspects of fan culture. </p>
<p>Perhaps, however, we might reverse the comparison and note that religion operates more like a fandom. </p>
<p>Because of America’s <a href="https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-59;jsessionid=61B32340E18C9B2F4044EED035BD2F4D?rskey=Gdlnlh">Protestant heritage</a>, Americans often assume religion is about beliefs; That’s because Protestantism renounces “salvation through works” in favor of “<a href="http://protestantism.co.uk/solas">sola fides</a>,” or “faith alone.” </p>
<p>But most religions don’t work this way. As religion scholar <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393422047">Stephen Prothero points out</a>, “Religions are often called ‘belief systems.’ But the Christian tradition is the only major religion that puts a strong emphasis on beliefs.”</p>
<p>According to Prothero, the common denominator that all religions share is not beliefs but stories. As he puts it, “All religions are ‘story systems.’” Outside of Christianity’s emphasis on creeds, most religious traditions emphasize practices, experiences and stories – exactly the things that drew fans to the Haunting of Impalas. </p>
<p>Pilgrimage – journeying to see sacred places and objects – is found in many religions. In 2023, the Hajj drew about <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/25/largest-hajj-pilgrimage-in-history-begins-in-saudi-arabia">2 million</a> pilgrims to Mecca despite dangerously high temperatures. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2023.2168736">Even more common is mimesis</a>, or replicating sacred stories through art and ritual. In the Mexican tradition of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Las-Posadas">Las Posadas</a>, a procession recreates the story of Mary and Joseph being turned away from the inn before smashing a pinata shaped like the star of Bethlehem. </p>
<p>What made “Supernatural” great was not the supernatural. Fans know the Winchester brothers are imaginary. And yet the Winchesters’ story seems to represent something greater than themselves. The Impalas become an object of pilgrimage because they present a physical connection to things that are otherwise intangible and transcendent – a modern mythology and a community of like-minded people. </p>
<p>Religious studies is largely a Western invention, and so it has historically carried a lot of <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781400849659-008/html?lang=en">Protestant assumptions</a>, even when discussing non-Christian religions, including the idea that the essence of religions is a set of intellectual propositions about God or the afterlife.</p>
<p>But if scholars of religion shift their analysis from beliefs to stories and communities, who is to say that the world’s religions are not just larger fandoms of figures like Jesus, Buddha or Krishna?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216890/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Since 2019, fans of the TV series ‘Supernatural’ have flocked to Austin, where their encounters with 1967 Impalas customized to mimic the one used in the show arouse elation, astonishment and tears.Joseph P. Laycock, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Texas State UniversityNatasha Mikles, Assistant Professor in Philosophy and Religious Studies, Texas State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2117582023-09-18T14:54:08Z2023-09-18T14:54:08Z‘Something special, otherworldly’: why so many people are making maritime pilgrimages<p>On an April day under a cloudy sky earlier this year, professional yachtsman Russ Fairman <a href="https://sailingpilgrimages.co.uk/stella-maris/">embarked</a> on a 2,400-mile circumnavigation of the British Isles. Departing Southampton on a 34-foot yacht christened Mintaka, Fairman sailed anti-clockwise in what he <a href="https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/47620">described</a> as “a prayer hug around Britain”. </p>
<p>The voyage took in important Christian destinations, including Walsingham, Lindisfarne and Iona, in aid of the Catholic seafarers’ charity, <a href="https://www.stellamaris.org.uk/">Stella Maris</a>. On July 9 – <a href="https://www.cbcew.org.uk/sea-sunday-2023/">Sea Sunday</a>, a Catholic feast day of prayers for seagoers and fishermen – Mintaka <a href="https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/23642737.southampton-sailor-returns-2-400-mile-voyage-around-britain/">arrived in Portsmouth</a>, after 70 days at sea. </p>
<p>From <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2023-09-06/around-22-million-pilgrims-estimated-to-be-in-iraq-for-arbayeen">Iraq</a> and <a href="https://www.aciafrica.org/news/7722/rector-reports-more-pilgrimages-to-our-lady-of-guadalupe-shrine-than-before-pandemic">Mexico</a> to <a href="http://www.risingkashmir.in/record-number-of-pilgrims-perform-spiritual-amarnath-pilgrimage-af405018-adbb-4870-9b5b-c16c805fe509">India</a> and <a href="https://thebulletin.be/belgiums-christian-pilgrimage-sites-attract-12-million-visitors">Belgium</a>, the numbers of people recorded at pilgrim destinations – Christian, Muslim and beyond – are hitting record highs. </p>
<p>In 2022, the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain saw <a href="https://oficinadelperegrino.com/en/statistics-2/">438,307 pilgrims</a> collecting their <em>compostelas</em> (certificates of completion). Most people do the Camino on foot. But pedestrian travel isn’t the only way of getting to a shrine. </p>
<p>Many choose to make pilgrimages by <a href="https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-hubs/shrewsbury/2022/08/22/bill-embarks-on-cycling-pilgrimage-to-raise-awareness-of-mental-illness/">bike</a> or <a href="https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/zabbar-pilgrimage-motorbike.980081?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1662877892">motorcycle</a>, by <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/people/semi-trucks-trailers-convoy-pilgrimage-shrine-lady-guadalupe-midwest-desplaines-20221206-ofpcfwd72veanlw4ofo7wnkqhy-story.html">truck</a> and <a href="https://www.schoenstatt.org/en/reaching-out/2023/06/first-tractor-pilgrimage-to-the-shrine-of-unity/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">tractor</a>, by <a href="https://aleteia.org/2022/09/13/a-man-and-his-donkey-make-a-pilgrimage-to-lourdes-19th-century-style/">donkey</a>, on <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-our-lady-of-guadalupe-shrine-pilgrimage-des-plaines-horseback-riders-20211205-vus5d7gz3zbs7c4dv2dhu2j2ne-story.html">horseback</a> – and, like Fairman, by boat. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.spain.info/en/discover-spain/way-st-james-original-ways/">Sailing</a> pilgrimages are now recognised by the Camino de Santiago authorities, with the numbers choosing to sail almost <a href="https://oficinadelperegrino.com/en/statistics-2/">doubling since 2019</a>, from 243 to 448 in 2022. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qHh_ZlwxpTc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>I have <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/9/1157">researched</a> how the idea of the pilgrimage – in Christian and post-Christian societies – is changing. Water-borne transport is championed as a <a href="https://www.inoutviajes.com/noticia/22713/turismo-nacional/el-6-de-junio-arrancara-la-viii-travesia-de-el-camino-a-vela-la-mas-larga-hasta-el-momento.html">sustainable option</a>. As part of what tourism experts term “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1468797613476411">slow travel</a>”, it is becoming ever more important for modern pilgrims searching for spirituality in creative ways. I am a sailor myself. There is something special, even otherworldly, about time spent at sea. </p>
<h2>What sea travel offers pilgrims that land travel doesn’t</h2>
<p>Literary voyages suggest that sea travel is rich in spiritual symbolism. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Brendan">Voyage of St Brendan</a> is a case in point. Supposedly undertaken by the sixth-century Irish monk, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Brendan">St Brendan of Clonfert</a>, this legendary island-hopping journey was replicated by the British explorer <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/164422/the-brendan-voyage-by-tim-severin/">Timothy Severin</a> in the mid 1970s. </p>
<p>A sea passage can be a liminal experience. Shore life is temporarily held in suspension. Space is made for soul-searching and reflection. There’s respite from the stresses of everyday life. As Fairman told me by email: “True life for me exists at boundaries, where one world meets another, heaven touches earth, the spiritual interacts with the physical.”</p>
<p>There is also the sheer exhilaration of being immersed in a truly wild, natural environment. One of Fairman’s volunteer crew members put it plainly in a personal testimony recorded for a thanksgiving prayer night at the end of their voyage: “It was beautiful to be out in the elements of sea and wind where God’s creation was so much bigger than our man-made world.”</p>
<p>This chimes with research highlighting the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/04/prescribed-time-in-nature-linked-to-improvements-in-anxiety-depression-and-blood-pressure?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1">health</a> and <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/32436341.pdf">spiritual</a> benefits of time spent in nature. The faith tourism scholar Veena Sharma <a href="https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=ijrtp">writes</a> that the pilgrim’s journey is a process of opening up to the forces of nature: “The pilgrim mind reveres the path, the woods, rivers and the empty spaces.”</p>
<h2>The long history of maritime pilgrimages</h2>
<p>Local pilgrimages attest to the continued beliefs and religious practices of coastal communities in <a href="https://www.avignon-et-provence.com/en/traditions/gypsys-pilgrimage-saintes-maries-de-mer">France</a>, <a href="https://turismotorremolinos.es/en/discover/virgen-del-carmen-procession/">Spain</a>, <a href="https://www.salvadordabahia.com/en/experiences/festival-of-lord-bom-jesus-dos-navegantes/">Brazil</a> and the <a href="https://pilgrimarunizd.wixsite.com/mysite/en">Adriatic</a>. </p>
<p>Sea travel was key to the spread of early Christianity. Fairman was inspired by the Celtic missionary saints and, in particular, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Columba">St Columba of Iona</a>, the Irish monk credited with evangelising the land now known as Scotland and founding the abbey on Iona. And the earliest Christian pilgrims travelled to sacred destinations, such as the <a href="https://www.arcjournals.org/pdfs/ijhcs/v4-i4/3.pdf">Holy Land</a>, by boat. </p>
<p>By the 1300s, English pilgrims found the direct maritime route to Santiago de Compostela to be more expedient than traversing mainland Europe as many people still do today, by foot, along the <a href="https://caminoways.com/camino-frances"><em>Camino Francés</em></a>, the French Way. People would instead depart from Southampton, Bristol and <a href="https://www.winchelsea.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/23-07-Winchelsea-Parish-Magazine-July-2023.pdf">other southern ports</a>, and sail to La Corũna in Spain, to join the route now known as the <a href="https://caminoways.com/camino-ingles"><em>Camino Inglés</em></a> – the English Way. From here they walked the last stretch to Santiago. </p>
<p>Contemporary maritime pilgrimages like Fairman’s attest to rising interest in connecting to that long, holy history. And you don’t necessarily need sailing experience to get involved. </p>
<h2>How to get involved</h2>
<p>Several newly established pilgrimage routes cross maritime borders. The <a href="https://www.pembroke-today.co.uk/news/creative-camino-the-maiden-journey-for-a-new-cross-border-pilgrim-route-544748">Wexford-Pembrokeshire Pilgrimage Way</a>, launched in 2023, links Ireland and Wales. And <a href="https://www.stsigfridstrust.org/about">St Sigrid’s Way</a>, from York to Sweden, crosses the North Sea. The St Olav Waterway, established in 2019, sees pilgrims island hop from Sweden to Norway by ferry, kayak or chartered boat.</p>
<p>Pilgrimage tours by ferry or charter take visitors to holy islands including Iona in Scotland, Bardsey Island in Wales, Caldey Island in Pembrokeshire and Flat Holme in the English Channel.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A stamped booklet" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547841/original/file-20230912-27-bvetw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547841/original/file-20230912-27-bvetw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547841/original/file-20230912-27-bvetw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547841/original/file-20230912-27-bvetw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547841/original/file-20230912-27-bvetw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547841/original/file-20230912-27-bvetw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547841/original/file-20230912-27-bvetw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Camino compostela certificate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sun_sand_sea/20899914230">Irene Grassi|Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is also now possible to join the Camino de Santiago from the UK, via the <a href="https://www.csj.org.uk/st-james-way">St James Way</a>, which takes pilgrims from Reading to Southampton. They then make their way across the English Channel to continue their journey to Santiago de Compostela through France and Spain. In June 2024, I will join the <a href="https://www.csj.org.uk/news/tall-ship-camino">UK Confraternity of St James</a>’s Tall-Ship Camino departing from Fowey in Cornwall, disembarking at La Corũna in Spain. Sailors of all abilities are welcome. </p>
<p>For the last eight years, the North Marinas Association has organised an annual <a href="https://elcaminoavela.com/"><em>Camino a Vela</em></a> (which translates as “camino by sail”). This flotilla of up to 30 sailing boats comprises crews of people from across the world, including <a href="https://elcaminoavela.com/en/take-part/">novice recruits</a>. </p>
<p>Throughout the ages, seascapes have been used as the backdrop for spiritual encounters. Today, seasoned sailors well atuned to the power of nature still relay <a href="https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/47620">miraculous occurrences</a> at sea. </p>
<p>Poised between one landmass and the next, you are vulnerable to the elements, truly “betwixt and between”, as cultural anthropologist Victor Turner puts it in his 1967 book of essays, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Forest_of_Symbols.html?id=62bKQB5xEo0C&redir_esc=y">The Forest of Symbols</a>. At sea, to Fairman’s mind, is where pilgrimage comes into its own: “This is where one grows and discovers the depth of our own being, and who we really are.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211758/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Bailey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Modern pilgrims are increasingly turning to the waves in search of more creative and contemporary ways to explore their faith and its history.Anne Bailey, Associate Member of the History Faculty, University of Oxford, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2093112023-08-04T12:27:54Z2023-08-04T12:27:54ZShaligrams, the sacred fossils that have been worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists for over 2,000 years, are becoming rarer because of climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536833/original/file-20230711-29-xz2dcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C5%2C877%2C592&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Shaligram on top of a bed of small rocks.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Holly Walters</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For more than 2,000 years, Hinduism, Buddhism and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195154146.001.0001">shamanic Himalayan religion of Bon</a> have venerated <a href="https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463721721/shaligram-pilgrimage-in-the-nepal-himalayas">Shaligrams</a> – ancient fossils of ammonites, a class of extinct sea creatures related to modern squids.</p>
<p>Originating from a single remote region in northern Nepal – the Kali Gandaki River Valley of Mustang – Shaligram stones are viewed primarily as manifestations of the Hindu god Vishnu. Because they are not human-made, but <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/book/12027">created by the landscape</a>, they are believed to have an intrinsic consciousness of their own. As a result, Shaligrams are kept in homes and in temples, where they are treated as both living gods and active community members.</p>
<p>I went on my first Shaligram pilgrimage in 2015. After arriving at the village of Jomsom in Mustang, I, along with a group of Indian and Nepali pilgrims, started the five-day trek northeast from there to the temple of Muktinath, where the journey culminates. </p>
<p>Making our way through the winding river passage, between 26,000-foot (8,000-meter) mountain peaks, we carefully looked for Shaligrams in the fast-moving water and gathered up any we could reach.</p>
<p>Since then, <a href="https://www.wellesley.edu/anthropology/faculty/hollywalters">as an anthropologist</a>, I have documented a wide variety of Shaligram practices while working with devotees in Nepal and in India. In 2020 I wrote the first ethnographic account, “<a href="https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463721721/shaligram-pilgrimage-in-the-nepal-himalayas">Shaligram Pilgrimage in the Nepal Himalayas</a>,” which demonstrates how popular and important the pilgrimage is among South Asian and the wider global Hindu diasporas.</p>
<p>However, my ongoing work focuses more on how climate change and gravel mining are altering the course of the river, which is endangering the pilgrimage by making it harder to find Shaligrams.</p>
<h2>Living fossils</h2>
<p>The mythology of Shaligrams is associated with two legends. The first is told in a series of three Hindu scriptures, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Purana">Varaha, Padma and Brahmavaivarta Puranas</a>. </p>
<p>In each version of this story, the Hindu god Vishnu, believed to be the supreme creator, is cursed by the goddess Tulsi, who is also called Brinda, because he compromises her chastity. As the story is told, Vishnu disguised himself as her husband Jalandhar so that the god Shiva could kill the demon in a fight. This was because Jalandhar, born from Shiva’s third eye, had previously won a boon from the god Brahma that his wife’s chastity would keep him invincible in any battle. </p>
<p>Angry at the deception, Tulsi <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/%C5%9A%C4%81lagr%C4%81ma_kosha.html?id=32XXAAAAMAAJ">transformed herself into a river</a> – the Kali Gandaki – and turned Vishnu into a river stone, a Shaligram. In this way, Vishnu would be continuously born from her, like a child, in repayment for the karmic debt of killing her husband and making her a widow. The landscape of Mustang thus represents the bodies of Tulsi and Vishnu, producing Shaligram stones as divine manifestations from the waters of the Kali Gandaki. </p>
<p>The second legend is told in the Skanda Purana, which explains that Shaligrams are physically created by a type of celestial worm called the vajra-kita – translated as thunderbolt or adamantine worm – which is responsible for carving out the holes and coiled spiral formations that appear on the stones. </p>
<p>As a result, the beliefs around the mythological formation of Shaligrams involve <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9789048550142.007%5BOpens%20in%20a%20new%20window%5D">both legends</a>. As part of the first legend, Vishnu takes up residence within a sacred stone that appears in the Kali Gandaki River of Nepal. The story of the second legend is expressed in the carving of that stone by the vajra-kita to give it its uniquely smooth, rounded shape and the characteristic spirals both inside and on the surface. </p>
<h2>Rivers and roads</h2>
<p>Shaligram pilgrimage takes place high in the Himalayas, usually between April and June and again between late August and November. This helps avoid both the worst of the July monsoon rains and the December snows. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Snow-capped mountain peaks near a flowing river." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mount Nilgiri seen from the bed of the Kali Gandaki River.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Holly Walters</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mustang, however, is <a href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:130645682">currently divided</a> into the upper or the northern region and the lower or the southern region. In 1950, both Upper and Lower Mustang were <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/92e748bdfc52a6614ab21387b145eb95/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y">closed to travel</a> following China’s annexation of Tibet. But though Lower Mustang was reopened to pilgrimage and trekking in 1992, Upper Mustang remains highly restricted. </p>
<p>This means that the current Shaligram pilgrimage route does not include visiting the Damodar Kund – the glacial lake that produces Shaligrams from the high-altitude fossil beds – because pilgrims are still not allowed to freely cross into Upper Mustang.</p>
<p>The village of Kagbeni marks the principal boundary between the two divisions and is also one of the main stops on the Shaligram pilgrimage route. The village sits directly on the banks of the Kali Gandaki and is one of the few areas where pilgrims can reliably find significant numbers of Shaligrams by wading through the river themselves and by watching the river bed for any signs of a black spiral emerging from the sand.</p>
<p>The last destination on the pilgrimage route, at roughly 13,000 feet (4,000 meters), is the temple site of Muktinath, which contains <a href="https://doi.org/10.4135/9788132107729">multiple sacred areas of worship</a> for Hindus, Buddhists and followers of Bon. As a place of <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3673473">Hindu worship</a>, Muktinath offers a central shrine to the deity Vishnu as well as <a href="https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.14789.78561">108 water spouts under which pilgrims must pass</a>. The water spouts themselves are hammered directly into the mountain side, which contains a natural aquifer, and provide one last opportunity for practitioners to bathe themselves and their Shaligrams in the waters of Mustang.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004443723_002">Bon sanctuary</a>, Muktinath is home to the “Jwala Mai,” or the mother flame, a natural gas vent that produces a continuous flame that burns next to the constant flow of water from the mountain aquifer. Along with the high winds of the Himalayas, representing the element of air, and Shaligrams, representing the element of stone, Jwala Mai contributes to Bon practitioners’ view of Muktinath as a rare place where all of the sacred elements of their religion come together.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://hal.science/hal-03112094/document">Buddhist complex</a>, Muktinath is more commonly referred to as “Chumig-Gyatsa,” or the Hundred Waters, and the icon that is worshipped by Hindus as Vishnu is venerated by Buddhists as Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. In 2016, Muktinath also became home to the <a href="https://nepalnews.com/s/travel-and-tourism/35-feet-tall-buddha-statue-on-mustang">largest statue of the Buddha</a> ever built in Nepal.</p>
<h2>Climate change and Shaligrams</h2>
<p>These traditions then come together to provide a place to ritually welcome all of the new Shaligrams that have just been taken from the water into the lives of the people who venerate them. But Shaligrams are becoming rarer.</p>
<p>Climate change, faster glacial melting, and <a href="https://cot.unhas.ac.id/journals/index.php/ialt_lti/article/view/888">gravel mining in the Kali Gandaki</a> are changing the course of the river, which means fewer Shaligrams are appearing each year. This is mainly because the Kali Gandaki is fed by meltwater from the Southern Tibetan Plateau. But with the glacier disappearing, the river is becoming smaller and shifting away from the fossil beds that contain the ammonites needed to become Shaligrams.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A snow capped mountain with blue clouds in the distance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Kali Gandaki riverbed near the village of Kagbeni.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Holly Walters</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For the moment, though, the majority of pilgrims are still able to find at least a few Shaligrams every time they travel to Mustang, but it’s getting harder. Even so, once the new Shaligrams are introduced to worship at Muktinath, it is time for pilgrims to leave Mustang and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/717110">return home</a>. </p>
<p>For many, this is a bittersweet moment that marks the birth of their new household deities into the family but also means that they will be leaving the beauty of the high Himalayas and the place where deities come to Earth. </p>
<p>But all the pilgrims, me included, look forward to the days when we can return to walk the pilgrimage paths again, hopeful that Shaligrams will still appear.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Holly Walters does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many Hindus, Buddhists and people who follow the shamanic religion of Bon undertake a pilgrimage each year to northern Nepal to look for Shaligrams, believed to be a manifestation of Lord Vishnu.Holly Walters, Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology, Wellesley CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2094722023-07-25T12:23:14Z2023-07-25T12:23:14ZWomen can now undertake Islamic pilgrimages without a male guardian in Saudi Arabia, but that doesn’t mean they’re traveling alone – communities are an important part of the religious experience<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538621/original/file-20230720-33531-ec3kdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C6%2C1013%2C760&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">American Muslim women on pilgrimage at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina in 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iqbal Akhtar</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Saudi Arabia has changed its decadeslong rule that <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-arabia-hajj-umrah-women-no-male-guardian-required">mandated single women be accompanied by a male relative</a> when performing an Islamic pilgrimage, facilitating the participation of thousands of single Muslim women in the Hajj in 2023.</p>
<p>The new rules don’t apply just during the Hajj. Women can also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2021.1930878">perform the Umrah</a>, known as the “lesser pilgrimage,” or other <a href="https://spaceandculture.in/index.php/spaceandculture/article/download/1102/448">routine pilgrimages such as ziyarat</a> that can be undertaken any time of the year to Islamic holy sites, without a “mahram,” or male guardian. </p>
<p>The fact that women can now travel unaccompanied is part of a campaign by the political leadership of Saudi Arabia to improve the rights of women in the kingdom, which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10646170701490849">Western societies view</a> <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/apjur5&div=6&id=&page=">as oppressive</a>. </p>
<p>My research looks at issues of identity and “<a href="https://templetonreligiontrust.org/covenantal-pluralism/#:%7E:text=The%20philosophy%20of%20covenantal%20pluralism,as%20equally%20true%20or%20right">covenantal pluralism</a>,” which refers to the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2020.1835029">mutual obligations that different faith communities have toward one another</a> to support the pursuit of each one’s spiritual truth. I focus on the geographical area that encompasses the Indian Ocean, and I argue that these changes need to be viewed within a larger historical context and as they relate to Muslim women’s engagement with the sacred sites of Islam. </p>
<h2>Saudi Arabia and the West</h2>
<p>There is no Quranic injunction against women’s traveling alone. Nevertheless, in some patriarchal societies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2017.1293920">where sexual harassment is common</a>, restrictions are put on women irrespective of religious affiliation.
Currently, Islamic medieval-era injunctions are applied in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. </p>
<p>However, Saudi Arabia is an exception. Conservative Sunni Muslim countries often see the kingdom, the birthplace of Islam, <a href="https://www.sciencegate.app/document/10.4018/978-1-4666-4749-7.ch014">as the bulwark against</a> Western secularization. <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191835278.001.0001/acref-9780191835278-e-91">Medieval Islamic laws</a>, such as capital punishment for apostasy, are used to give an appearance of authoritative piety in present times.</p>
<p>Indeed, the cities of Mecca and Medina are visible manifestations of piety. To enter the holy cities is to be transported into a ritual space of sacred time based on the Muslim call to prayer, in which pilgrims from around the world unite in the idealized Prophetic vision of a nation of faith. It is not a world of punctual appointments set by a work schedule. Rather, worshippers serve God through devotion in prayer in accordance with the ancient Islamic prayer timings set by the rhythm of the Sun and Moon. </p>
<p>Colonization created a dichotomy within the world where Islam was often seen to be the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/islam-and-the-west-9780195090611?cc=us&lang=en&">opposite of the values of the West</a>. Keeping women segregated from male worshippers, and viewing that separation as an expression of piety, is part of the rejection of Western norms while legitimizing the Islamic credentials of the Saudis both domestically and internationally. </p>
<h2>Insider perspectives</h2>
<p>Generally in mosques around the world, women and men worship separately. To some it may appear to violate the norms of Western egalitarianism, but it’s an ancient practice meant to encourage a spiritual intimacy and fellowship. </p>
<p>Until now, single women who did not have a male relative to escort them to the Two Holy Mosques – Al Masjid Al Haram in Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina – would join an organized tour group of women. Their accommodations, meals, sermons and prayers would be organized together. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the holiest site in Islam – the mosque in Mecca – is circular, and historically men and women have worshipped openly together with few, if any, barriers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People walk around a black cubic structure along circular rows." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pilgrims walk around the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SaudiHajj/9af9be3fcf7140e4bbda5c893e1d44c5/photo?Query=hajj%20circular&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1167&currentItemNo=7&vs=true">Saudi Ministry of Media via AP, File</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These barriers, erected for women in Saudi Arabia in the 20th century, are being removed in accordance with the older <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Feminism_and_Islam/PygUCgAAQBAJ?hl">prophetic tradition of women’s independence</a>. For example, the first wife of the Prophet, Khatija, was an independent businesswoman who initially hired the Prophet as an employee for her trading caravans.</p>
<p>What is also important to consider is that whereas the Hajj is the preeminent Muslim pilgrimage, additional sacred sites exist for Shiite pilgrimage in countries such as Iran, Iraq and Syria. In these countries there is no mahram rule, though the threat of violence in Iraq and Syria means that both male and female pilgrims who visit from abroad come in groups.</p>
<h2>Community and camaraderie</h2>
<p>Islamic pilgrimages are global gatherings of Muslims organized into groups, communities and families in which the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14766825.2021.1953046">individual’s identity</a> is a dynamic one. The ultimate truth in Islam is the unity of God, and a Muslim pilgrimage is a manifestation of that unity through integration and service to the community. In this integration, the individual ego is subsumed through a <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mystical_Dimensions_of_Islam/EMLYeqhKEokC?hl">communal religious experience</a>, which can be ecstatic. </p>
<p>Additionally, Islam is a <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Heart_of_Islam/oAbB52U0icgC?hl">religion of right action</a> in which individuals find realization by integrating into the community. The communal model of pilgrimage helps them go through a physically demanding schedule of ritual observance and creates camaraderie, that continues beyond the pilgrimage. </p>
<p>The changes to the mahram rule allowed single Muslim women to join the Hajj pilgrimage in 2023. Over <a href="http://www.hajjreporters.com/hajj-2023-over-4000-indian-women-to-perform-hajj-without-male-guardian/">4,000 women from India</a> performed the Hajj without a male guardian. Nonetheless, community participation remains important, and most women do not actually travel alone. A majority of women join groups that share the same language, rituals and cuisine to facilitate navigation of the foreign world of Muslim religious tourism. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44364151">reshaping, reinterpretation and reconstruction</a> of Islamic pilgrimages has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/technology-remains-at-the-heart-of-the-hajj-206267">going on for centuries</a>; this time, women are leading it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209472/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Iqbal Akhtar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A religion scholar argues that the communal nature of Islamic pilgrimage helps worshippers go through a physically demanding schedule and creates camaraderie that continues beyond the pilgrimage.Iqbal Akhtar, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2062672023-06-22T16:59:33Z2023-06-22T16:59:33ZTechnology remains at the heart of the hajj<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532431/original/file-20230616-23-novafc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C0%2C8068%2C4913&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Iranian pilgrims pose for a selfie during the hajj pilgrimage in 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SaudiArabiaHajj/00c994b4debf44c18cd331df8cac397a/photo">AP Photo/Amr Nabil</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The hajj – <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-hajj-101641">the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca</a>, Saudi Arabia, which Muslims are expected to make once in their lives if they are able – is expected to begin June 26 and last for five days. In 2023, <a href="https://www.arabianbusiness.com/abnews/hajj-2023-saudi-arabia-to-receive-2-million-pilgrims">approximately 2 million pilgrims will participate</a>, close to the annual <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/617696/saudi-arabia-total-hajj-pilgrims/">numbers of pilgrims</a> in years before the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>Their visits, like those in generations past, will be enhanced, and even made possible, by modern technology. </p>
<p>In recent years, the Saudi government has developed smartphone apps aimed at organizations of pilgrim groups. Pilgrims use apps themselves, with guides to help them find and pray at specific holy locations. And they document their journey, both physical and spiritual, on social media platforms like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/hajj2023/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/hajj2023">TikTok</a>. </p>
<p>The country is rolling out <a href="https://twitter.com/MoHU_En/status/1416070942166499329">smart cards</a> for pilgrims to access hajj services and information, as well as make cashless payments.</p>
<p>And in 2022, the Saudi government established an online system by which prospective pilgrims from the U.S., Australia and Western Europe must enter a digital lottery for visas allowing them to <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-caravans-to-markets-the-hajj-pilgrimage-has-always-included-a-commercial-component-184418">make the hajj</a>. As for Muslim-majority countries, <a href="https://www.natvisa.com/saudi-arabia-blog/pilgrimage-visa-saudi-arabia">one visa is allocated</a> per 1,000 Muslims in each country. Those who are granted visas must <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-arabia-hajj-western-pilgrims-not-able-book-travel-agencies">book their travel through the Saudi government</a>, rather than through travel agencies in their home countries.</p>
<p>As those changes have occurred, news coverage about the hajj has often mentioned the technology involved, describing it as <a href="https://me.mashable.com/culture/23967/hajj-2023-expo-from-smartcards-to-ai-saudi-arabia-is-changing-the-face-of-pilgrimage-with-tech">a new phenomenon</a> that is “<a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/gulf-news/2023/01/11/hajj-expo-2023-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-pilgrimage/">transforming” the pilgrimage</a>. </p>
<p>Yet as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=s3BLaAgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">historian of the Middle East</a> and an expert on contemporary Islam, I know that technology has been at the heart of the hajj since the mid-1800s. Transportation and communications technologies have long been fundamental to governments’ management of the pilgrimage and to pilgrims’ spiritual experiences.</p>
<h2>Travel technology</h2>
<p>As far back as the 1850s, steamship technology made it possible for many more Muslims to make the pilgrimage even if they lived long distances from Mecca. </p>
<p>According to scholar <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/daily-author/eric-schewe/">Eric Schewe</a>, “<a href="https://daily.jstor.org/how-european-empires-helped-shape-the-hajjhow-european-empires-helped-shape-the-hajj/">European shipping lines sought Hajj pilgrims as passengers to supplement</a>” the money they made from shipping commercial cargo through the Suez Canal. By dropping off pilgrims at Arabian ports along a route their ships were already traveling, merchants were able to make a little extra income around the time of the hajj.</p>
<p>And the pilgrims appreciated the safety, speed, reliability and lower cost of steamship travel. As a result, they could reach the hajj more quickly and more cheaply than at any earlier period in history. From the 1880s to the 1930s, the <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/how-european-empires-helped-shape-the-hajjhow-european-empires-helped-shape-the-hajj">number of pilgrims going on hajj each year quadrupled</a>.</p>
<p>While steamships helped those traveling by water, rail helped those coming by land – especially those from Russia, whose multi-leg journeys often included travel by train to Odessa, in today’s Ukraine, or another Black Sea port, where they <a href="https://russia-islworld.ru/main/how-russian-muslims-went-to-the-hajj-in-the-past/">crossed to Istanbul by steamship</a> and then to Mecca via caravan. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532299/original/file-20230615-21-df5gh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photographic panorama of a holy space." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532299/original/file-20230615-21-df5gh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532299/original/file-20230615-21-df5gh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=224&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532299/original/file-20230615-21-df5gh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=224&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532299/original/file-20230615-21-df5gh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=224&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532299/original/file-20230615-21-df5gh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532299/original/file-20230615-21-df5gh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532299/original/file-20230615-21-df5gh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The honoured Ka‘bah and the Meccan sanctuary,’ 1880 photography by Sadiq Bey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Khalili_Collection_Hajj_and_Arts_of_Pilgrimage_Arc.pp-0254.2.jpg">Khalili Collections via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Communications technology</h2>
<p>The telegraph also played an important role in the hajj. The Ottoman government used its extensive telegraph network to govern and as <a href="https://trafo.hypotheses.org/30676">a sign of independence</a> from European powers; one key link was from the capital in <a href="https://www.archnet.org/sites/20029">Istanbul through Damascus, Syria, to Mecca</a>. European consular officials, rail and steamship companies and even individual pilgrims used the telegraph system for hajj-related communications.</p>
<p>Other communications technologies also affected the pilgrimage. <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/imperial-mecca/9780231190770">Colonial powers with Muslim populations worried</a> that the mass gathering of Muslims would lead to political unrest. They also worried about public health. </p>
<p>The speed of rail and steam travel meant that pilgrims could bring infectious diseases home with them, as happened with the <a href="https://www.lectures.iastate.edu/lectures/pilgrims-passport-pandemics-past-mecca-and-hajj-under-quarantine-cholera-covid-19">cholera epidemics that broke out regularly</a> during the hajj in the 1800s. </p>
<p>Many governments introduced tracking regulations that relied on print technologies: The Dutch in 1825 began requiring pilgrims to get passports, while the French in 1892 began requiring Algerian pilgrims to have travel permits. The British government in 1886 gave travel agency Thomas Cook an <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/package-tour-to-mecca-how-the-hajj-became-an-essential-part-of-the-british-calendar">exclusive contract for hajj travel from India</a>, requiring pilgrims to pre-purchase tickets for each leg of the journey. </p>
<p>Together, these regulations helped pilgrims get through the hajj safely. But they also worked to minimize its potential political and public health risks for the colonial powers that governed most of the world’s Muslim population.</p>
<h2>Into the modern era</h2>
<p>The spread of commercial air travel starting in the 1940s changed hajj dynamics further: Flying was even faster, cheaper and safer than steamship travel. It offered to further open hajj participation to more Muslims, but created massive logistical, political and economic challenges as the number of pilgrims increased six or seven times <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/0195171071.001.0001">between 1950 and 1980</a>.</p>
<p>New communications technologies further popularized the hajj. For example, radio stations covered the hajj, starting in the 1940s in Mandate Palestine, with pilgrim letters broadcast to listeners at home. Like earlier <a href="https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/251774/">cinema newsreels</a>, television from the 1960s showed viewers footage of pilgrims circumambulating or walking around the Kaaba, one of the key hajj rituals. This footage helped inspire them to want to go on hajj as well. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, growing literacy rates allowed Muslims to read the increasing number of <a href="https://www.meccabooks.com/266-handbook-for-hajj-and-umrah-9780860373407.html">printed hajj guides</a> helping them navigate lodging, eating and worship. <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/M/bo20313514.html">Contemporary hajj travelogues</a> recording pilgrims’ experiences are part of a classical genre of Middle Eastern travel literature, known in Arabic as the <a href="https://funci.org/the-emergence-of-the-rihla-or-travel-literature/?lang=en">rihla</a> or seyahetname; both terms describe books of travels that typically included pilgrimage.</p>
<p>As pilgrims <a href="https://twitter.com/shen_shiwei/status/1289250173961396224/photo/1">celebrated their ability to travel to the hajj</a> via airplane, glitches happened. In 1952, the Saudi government’s last-minute cutting a hajj entry tax encouraged thousands of additional pilgrims to fly to Beirut, where Lebanese airline companies had no seats available. Instead, the <a href="https://roadsandkingdoms.com/2014/when-uncle-sam-rolled-out-the-magic-carpet-for-hajj/">United States Air Force organized an airlift</a> that transported nearly 4,000 stranded pilgrims from Beirut to Mecca in time to make the hajj.</p>
<p>Again, communications technologies played an important role in pilgrim management. In the 1950s, <a href="https://www.papertotravel.com/MP-323/photo/5723">British-governed Malaysia</a> issued so-called “pilgrim passports,” which collected all information relevant to a pilgrim’s travel, from vaccination dates to next of kin contact information. Saudi-issued hajj visas evolved from handwritten and handstamped in the <a href="https://www.ebay.com/itm/314050359157">1970s</a> to digitally stamped, bar-coded visas by the <a href="https://www.papertotravel.com/MP-576/photo/10717">late 2000s</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532432/original/file-20230616-25-p8kviv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A crowd of people moves through a tunnel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532432/original/file-20230616-25-p8kviv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532432/original/file-20230616-25-p8kviv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532432/original/file-20230616-25-p8kviv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532432/original/file-20230616-25-p8kviv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532432/original/file-20230616-25-p8kviv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532432/original/file-20230616-25-p8kviv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532432/original/file-20230616-25-p8kviv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Massive numbers of people make the hajj every year, requiring significant effort for crowd control and safety.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/prospective-pilgrims-continue-their-worship-to-fulfill-the-news-photo/1241839087">Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Large numbers of travelers</h2>
<p>Historically, a tiny minority of Muslims envisioned making the pilgrimage at any point in their lives. Even today, most Muslims will never be able to go on hajj, and most who do will go only once. </p>
<p>But the <a href="https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2023/04/354870/global-muslim-population-exceeds-2-billion">global Muslim population</a> numbers just over 2 billion, so even a small fraction of their total means a lot of people. The 2 million expected on this year’s hajj are still just 0.1% of the world’s Muslims.</p>
<p>With travel and communications eased, Mecca’s ability to handle all those visitors at once has become <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/features/2023/04/03/Umrah-crowd-control-How-Saudi-authorities-are-ensuring-safety-of-pilgrims-">the major challenge</a>. The stakes are high for the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-fears-put-a-halt-to-the-muslim-pilgrimage-of-umrah-but-not-yet-the-hajj-132943">Umrah</a>: It is expected to provide a safe, healthy and spiritually meaningful experience for all pilgrims, while avoiding any bad press for the host country. Umrah, known as the “lesser pilgrimage”, is recommended but not required for Muslims. It includes many of the hajj rituals but can be completed at any time of the year.</p>
<p>Now, with its own digital tools and devices in the hands of many pilgrims, the 21st century hajj fits within the longer history of technology and the hajj, a story nearly 200 years old. Even as the specific technologies have changed, their importance to the management of the hajj and to pilgrims’ spiritual experiences remains constant.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Stanton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Saudi government is using digital technology to help the hajj run smoothly and safely – the latest updates in a 200-year history of technology and the hajj.Andrea Stanton, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies & Faculty Affiliate, Center for Middle East Studies, University of DenverLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2000432023-03-28T13:33:30Z2023-03-28T13:33:30ZPilgrimage and revolution: How Cesar Chavez married faith and ideology in landmark farmworkers’ march<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516472/original/file-20230320-2929-r24sy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C462%2C2775%2C1468&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cesar Chavez salutes the crowd on the steps of the California State Capitol.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CesarChavezFarmworkers/97021c0e28524a20b9bfbd53d785e05c/photo?Query=cesar%20chavez%20pilgrimage&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On March 31, 1966, labor rights pioneer <a href="https://chavezfoundation.org/about-cesar-chavez/">Cesar Chavez</a> wasn’t celebrating his birthday in any usual manner. Rather, he was 14 days into a <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/series.htm?id=30500CCE-DEF1-6880-2FA7F592DB11EA8F">25-day pilgrimage in California</a> from Delano to Sacramento.</p>
<p>Leading a group of striking farm laborers and supporters, Chavez’s plan was to build momentum and support for the workers’ cause in a march that would conclude on the steps of the California State Capitol on Easter Sunday morning.</p>
<p>The date here is crucial. A foundational, but mostly forgotten, feature of the nearly 300-mile pilgrimage during Lent was that it was a deeply religious endeavor.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.amherst.edu/people/facstaff/lbarba">scholar of religion and the farmworkers movement</a>, I believe Chavez’s endeavor was not simply a “march” or “protest” – although workers’ rights were, of course, central to the event. Rather, it was a “pilgrimage,” and to overlook the religious dimensions is to fundamentally misunderstand what Chavez was trying to achieve.</p>
<h2>Revolution with penance</h2>
<p>Chavez, whose birthday is <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/03/30/a-proclamation-on-cesar-chavez-day-2022/">celebrated as a commemorative holiday</a> in the U.S. every March 31, remains the preeminent icon of civil and labor rights in the U.S.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A man speaks into a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516527/original/file-20230321-20-lcafsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516527/original/file-20230321-20-lcafsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516527/original/file-20230321-20-lcafsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516527/original/file-20230321-20-lcafsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516527/original/file-20230321-20-lcafsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516527/original/file-20230321-20-lcafsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516527/original/file-20230321-20-lcafsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cesar Chavez speaks at a union rally.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cesar-chavez-the-organizer-and-leader-of-the-national-farm-news-photo/576842724?phrase=Cesar%20Chavez%201966&adppopup=true">Ted Streshinsky/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>But contrasting with the view of labor rights as a purely secular endeavor, Chavez fused his understanding of Catholic social doctrine with principles of community organizing.</p>
<p>Accordingly, when it came to raising attention to the plight of <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/workers-united-the-delano-grape-strike-and-boycott.htm">striking grape harvesters</a> – denied the right to unionize in their fight for higher wages and better conditions – Chavez leaned on his religious beliefs.</p>
<p>From the outset, Chavez made clear the pious nature of the march, calling it a peregrinación – Spanish for “pilgrimage” – in the registration form he penned. Leaving no room for ambiguity, Chavez detailed: “This is a religious march” and added the headline banner of “Pilgrimage, Penance, Revolution” – framing designed to appeal to both the majority-Catholic farmworker faithful and more revolutionary members of the labor movement alike.</p>
<p>At first blush, penance seems a bit out of place in a world of protest. Even more ironically, Chavez <a href="https://chavez.cde.ca.gov/modelcurriculum/teachers/lessons/resources/Documents/plan_of_delano.pdf">held that penance</a> during the 1966 Lenten season march was required “for all the failings of Farm Workers” rather than for the exploitative growers that kept farmworkers uprooted and impoverished. But to Chavez, revolution could not happen without penance – that is, an undertaking to offer oneself blameless. As a collective public ritual, however, it also hoped to call the entire nation to penance.</p>
<p>The pilgrimage was an extension of a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-pawel-chavez-delano-grape-strike-20150916-story.html">strike launched on Mexican Independence Day</a> in 1965 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Delano. There, the Chavez-led National Farm Workers Association joined forces with the Filipino Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee.</p>
<p>Catholicism offered a ready-made bridge between Mexican and Filipino farmworkers. Seemingly “secular” labor issues could easily be framed through religious and moral language. Chavez’s commitment to <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520283695/the-political-spirituality-of-cesar-chavez">foregrounding religion</a> in his commitment to nonviolence took a page from Martin Luther King Jr.’s playbook.</p>
<h2>A lady of labor</h2>
<p>The pilgrimage to Sacramento began on March 17, 1966, <a href="https://cal170.library.ca.gov/march-17-1966-the-perigrinacion-begins/">under a banner</a> of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Guadalupe – a <a href="https://theconversation.com/lady-of-guadalupe-avoids-tough-truths-about-the-catholic-church-and-indigenous-genocide-160079">representation of the Virgin Mary</a>, which, according to Catholic tradition, originated in 1531 – has long stood as Mexico’s <a href="https://www.theologyandreligiononline.com/article?docid=b-9781350898806&tocid=b-9781350898806-007">most ubiquitous symbol</a> of national and religious protest.</p>
<p>Along with the banner Our Lady of Guadalupe, a star of David and a cross were featured as prominent religious symbols in the pilgrimage. The larger meaning of the cross, when carried near the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cesar-chavezs-march-changed-topic-new-graphic-novel-rcna11752">worn and wearied</a> Chavez <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/images/Chavez-Leading_Yale.jpg?maxwidth=650&autorotate=false&quality=78&format=webp">hobbling along</a> with the help of a cane, was not at all lost on farmworkers. Later ballads captured this striking allusion to the Passion of Jesus by describing Chavez as a <a href="https://online.ucpress.edu/ch/article-abstract/94/1/26/33337/More-Spirit-in-That-Little-Madera-ChurchCesar?redirectedFrom=fulltext">suffering prophet and messianic figure</a> who would sacrifice everything to bring about justice for farmworkers.</p>
<p>Despite the prominence of Catholic iconography, the pilgrimage remained an interfaith endeavor. Rabbis, Catholic priests and Protestant clergy stood as some of the farmworkers’ staunchest supporters.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in seen walking while leaning on a cane, surrounded by a group of supporters including a man in vicar garb." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516525/original/file-20230320-14-rwof1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516525/original/file-20230320-14-rwof1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516525/original/file-20230320-14-rwof1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516525/original/file-20230320-14-rwof1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516525/original/file-20230320-14-rwof1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516525/original/file-20230320-14-rwof1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516525/original/file-20230320-14-rwof1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Rev. Eugene J. Boyle joined protesters, including Cesar Chavez, seen here leaning on a cane.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CesarChavez1966/3b359db3ada24db6b4b9385af154649d/photo?Query=cesar%20chavez%201966&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=7&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Music to lift souls and ease soles</h2>
<p>Support to lift the spirit of the marchers came in a multitude of ways. For example, after a day of marching, El Teatro Campesino, a theater group established by playwright Luis Valdez, and enthusiastic supporters put on rallies filled with food and music. One <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781603441933/farm-workers-and-the-churches/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1678409084787386&usg=AOvVaw3TAkx7ws0IEU-5BWtlgpqT">historian recorded</a> that these raucous celebrations resembled religious revivals, much like the ones Chavez had noted in Pentecostal church services.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/cesar-chavez">his 1975 autobiography</a>, Chavez described attending one such service in Madera, in the heart of California’s Central Valley, in 1954. The young labor organizer recalled:</p>
<p>“In that little Madera church, I observed everything going on about me that could be useful in organizing. Although there were no more than twelve men and women, there was more spirit there than when I went to mass where there were two hundred.”</p>
<p>Pentecostal music, unlike typical church music of the time, <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469624068/migrating-faith/">redeemed the fiesta of secular Mexican music</a> by sanctifying musical genres then thought to not be fit for religious services. Chavez would have immediately noticed a striking contrast between demonstrative Pentecostal worship and the staid music of Catholicism in the pre-Vatican II years. </p>
<h2>‘The base must be faith’</h2>
<p>Almost a decade after the pilgrimage, <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/cesar-chavez">Chavez mused</a>:</p>
<p>“Today I don’t think I could base my will to struggle on cold economics or on some political doctrine. I don’t think there would be enough to sustain me. For me, the base must be faith.”</p>
<p>Faith sustained Chavez on his pilgrimage 57 years ago. On Easter Sunday 1966, Chavez ascended the steps of the California State Capitol upon the completion of the pilgrimage. By then, the aim of securing the farmworkers with their first-ever union contract with a grower had been completed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200043/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lloyd Daniel Barba does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of religion looks at how faith helped guide the labor rights icon in his organizing endeavors.Lloyd Daniel Barba, Assistant Professor of Religion, Amherst CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1962962022-12-14T13:22:12Z2022-12-14T13:22:12ZSacred rivers: Christianity in southern Africa has a deep history of water and ritual<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499972/original/file-20221209-25133-n77srn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A baptism ceremony in the Mbashe river in South Africa's Eastern Cape province.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">CARL DE SOUZA/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Water is a scarce commodity in much of Africa, particularly in southern Africa. This is well symbolised in the name of the Botswana national currency, pula (rain). When tragedies like <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2022/12/08/alex-community-members-demand-answers-over-jukskei-river-drownings">flooding and drowning</a> take place, it may seem inappropriate to speak of the scarcity and commodity of water. For example, members of the <a href="https://dacb.org/stories/zimbabwe/johane-masowe/">Johane Masowe</a> church drowned in a flash flood during a baptismal ceremony at a river in South Africa recently. </p>
<p>But part of the attraction of moving bodies of water to religious groups may be rooted in this very scarcity. Whatever is scarce is also precious and whatever is precious might be termed sacred. Religions by whatever name venerate the sacred. Think, for example, of places like the city of Jerusalem, which has sacred status in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Or think of Mecca for Islam, or the River Ganges in Hinduism. </p>
<p>Religious adherents are drawn to sacredness, and they often go to great lengths to be close to it. Pilgrimages in all the religions of the world are based on this principle, including <a href="https://www.routledge.com/African-Pilgrimage-Ritual-Travel-in-South-Africas-Christianity-of-Zion/Muller/p/book/9781032099224">African pilgrimage</a>. Holy sites like Zion City Moria is a principal pilgrimage destination for members of the Zion Christian Church in South Africa, for example. </p>
<p>Another characteristic of the sacred is that it can be dangerous. It is not for idle reasons that the “fear of God” is a well-trodden theme in biblical literature. Readers are encouraged to be cautious of the sacred. </p>
<p>Most <a href="https://zuidafrika.nl/arts-culture/religions/">religious groups in southern Africa</a> are broadly Christian, drawing on a common pool of biblical knowledge in constructing their rituals and spirituality. Throughout the Bible, the miraculous nature of rain and water is emphasised. In one passage Moses secures life-giving water by striking a rock with his staff. In another the prophet Elijah illustrates his divinely sanctioned role by praying successfully for rain at Mount Carmel. In the Christian New Testament, Jesus walks on the water of the sea of Galilee, illustrating his sacred power. When his disciple Peter attempts to copy the act, his fear proves greater and he must be saved. In another instance Jesus shows his submission to the sacred by being baptised in the River Jordan.</p>
<p>Water baptism has been a central rite in the Christian church since antiquity. Over the centuries it became institutionalised as a once off ritual administered to church members either at infancy or at a later stage upon their confession of faith. </p>
<p>Different church groups have battled over which form of baptism is the theologically more correct option – infant baptism or the baptism of confessing adults. But in more recent times, especially in many African Christian communities, a completely new version of the ritual has arisen. This is where a church group conducts not only once off baptisms of new members but also subsequent baptism-like rituals at natural bodies of water at specific occasions for a variety of reasons. </p>
<h2>Ancient spiritual rituals</h2>
<p>In conducting rituals connected to water, African Christian churches often also tap into ancient remnants of spirituality that have existed in these regions for thousands of years. I have written about this as instances of <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2074-77052008000300012">religious hybridity</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.san.org.za/history.php">San</a> people of southern Africa were known to conduct “rainmaking” rituals at <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/shaman-rainmaking-center-discovered-south-africa-flna6c10144950">special sites for many centuries</a>. Rain rituals are still at the forefront of especially rural spiritualities. <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/rain-queen-makobo-modjadji-vi-dies-after-sudden-illness">Modjadji, the rain queen</a>, is perhaps the best-known ritual specialist in the northern part of South Africa. There have been many other lesser-known ritual specialists with similar rain and water-related roles throughout southern and central Africa. For example, the anthropologist Penelope Bernard has written about “living water” in <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/43809484">South African Nguni healing traditions</a>. In these divine-healing traditions mythical underwater snakes or mermaids are mentioned in connection with sacred water.</p>
<p>When Christian missionaries first attempted to establish themselves among such communities, they often encountered questions about their ability or inability to bring rain. Often their own position as bearers of good news was accepted only after they had prayed, and <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/exch/46/1/article-p29_3.xml?language=en">rains had fallen</a>. Successes for Christian missionaries occurred when <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2074-77052021000200008">powerful rain ritualists occasionally converted to Christianity</a>. Such rain specialists often went to special sites to perform their rituals, often at or near pools of water. </p>
<p>In pre-Christian tradition certain mythical animals were often associated with such places, typically snakes, as mentioned above, which were believed to have mythical and spiritual connotations. Nyami Nyami, the Zambezi river god, is perhaps the best known of such entities in the region. </p>
<p>When ordinary people go to visit apparently ordinary water sites they may well be on a sacred journey. Tragedies, when they occur, should be mourned, but the practice of water rituals should not be condemned. Water is life, after all, and therefore sacred.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196296/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Retief Müller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Water is sacred in many religious traditions, holding power that can also be dangerous.Retief Müller, Associate Professor in Theology, VID Specialized UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1909992022-09-26T16:29:53Z2022-09-26T16:29:53ZHow the Queen’s queue can be seen as a modern form of pilgrimage<p>On Friday, September 16 2022, the day the queue to see Queen Elizabeth II lying in state in Westminster Hall first reached its ten-mile capacity and had to be closed to new entrants, one social media commentator <a href="https://twitter.com/NickEquipeChass/status/1570896651518365696">tweeted</a> that it was “our 21st-century pilgrimage”.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/news/lying-in-state-queue-like-a-pilgrimage/">idea</a> that these crowds of mourners waiting <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/fights-freezing-and-fainting-what-it-was-like-queuing-through-the-night-to-see-the-queen-e2-80-99s-coffin/ar-AA11W57j">through the night</a> to view the Queen’s coffin were <a href="https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/45519">pilgrims</a> was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/19/queue-pilgrimage-peoples-quest-historic-day-queen">subsequently</a> promoted <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e15202cd-02a8-43b4-a9ba-5675cb212854">by</a> the <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/fights-freezing-and-fainting-what-it-was-like-queuing-through-the-night-to-see-the-queen-e2-80-99s-coffin/ar-AA11W57j">press</a>. It was also enthusiastically taken up by the public. </p>
<p>“We were coming slowly down the Mall and, because you’re with thousands of others all making the same journey, it almost felt like a pilgrimage,” an IT engineer <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/queen-death-buckingham-palace-queues-b2164886.html">told the Independent</a>. Even the Bishop of Southwark <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001c600">agreed</a>, which is remarkable given that, until relatively recently, pilgrimage in Protestant Britain was considered a Catholic aberration. </p>
<p><a href="https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijrtp/vol10/iss1/16/">I have spent</a> 20 years <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/7/665/htm">researching</a> contemporary and secular <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-you-might-want-to-consider-a-pilgrimage-for-your-next-holiday-or-day-trip-174208">pilgrimage phenomena</a> and participating in many pilgrimages. Three aspects of the queue chime with my research: the sense of camaraderie felt by participants, the valorisation of physical hardship, and the idea that the journey is just as important as the destination. </p>
<h2>Why people waited in line</h2>
<p>To understand how so many Britons came to perceive what was ostensibly a mourning event in this way, I joined the queue on September 15 2022. I also spent four days analysing newspaper and social media comments. </p>
<p>For many participants, the queue’s most noteworthy feature was the sense of <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/queen-lying-in-state-in-the-queue-for-the-queue-people-bring-their-own-stories-and-a-flask-cqxqsmtqp?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1663434608">camaraderie</a> it inspired. It brought together, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/queen-lying-in-state-in-the-queue-for-the-queue-people-bring-their-own-stories-and-a-flask-cqxqsmtqp?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1663434608">according to one journalist</a>, “people of all ages, backgrounds and places across the land”. </p>
<p>Pilgrimage scholars know this phenomenon as “communitas”. Coined by the anthropologist Victor Turner in his 1969 book, The Ritual Process, this term describes the egalitarian fellowship people walking a route together feel. </p>
<p>It was in this spirit that David Beckham and other celebrities were <a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/celebrities-queued-see-queen-david-beckham-susanna-reid-071816754.html?src=rss">lauded</a> for putting aside their celebrity status and joining the common crowd. Conversely, two television presenters were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/21/holly-willoughby-and-phillip-schofield-would-never-jump-a-queue-to-see-queen-lying-in-state">vilified</a> when they appeared to be flouting the unspoken rule of communitas by <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/news/huw-edwards-and-susanna-reid-in-apparent-phillip-schofield-and-holly-willoughby-queue-jumping-swipes/ar-AA12003A">jumping the queue</a>. Such was the public outrage that a petition was started to <a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/axe-holly-willoughby-phillip-schofield-tv-petition-085134548.html">axe</a> their jobs. </p>
<p>Another celebrity, the broadcaster and academic Alice Roberts, also provoked a social media backlash by suggesting that the long wait <a href="https://twitter.com/theAliceRoberts/status/1571083487595343872">might be avoided</a> with tickets and timed slots. The response was unanimous and reflected a commonly held belief about pilgrimage: that physical discomfort was an important element of the experience. As one person tweeted, </p>
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<p>This was a typical comment. <a href="https://twitter.com/mickmuldoon/status/1570894423298543617">People</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/MeadeNewman/status/1571183711441358849">social media</a> compared the experience to other well-known pilgrimages: the Irish Catholic route at <a href="https://www.loughderg.org/">Lough Derg</a>, or <a href="https://www.yourirish.com/traditions/pilgrimage-croagh-patrick">Croagh Patrick</a>, which require penitential practices such as barefoot walking and all-night vigil; the <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781315709147/camino-de-santiago-21st-century-samuel-s%C3%A1nchez-s%C3%A1nchez-annie-hesp">Camino de Santiago</a> in Spain, renowned for its arduous, footsore walk. Other comparisons were made to the <a href="https://twitter.com/Mauricedrei/status/1571117803209633792">medieval</a> pilgrimage of <a href="https://twitter.com/stmaryseco/status/1570843269676007424">Chaucer</a>’s Canterbury <a href="https://twitter.com/AnnieW8944/status/1571095674946736129">Tales</a>.</p>
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<p>For many, it was the protracted nature of <a href="https://twitter.com/Aamin_Marritza/status/1570891185295855616">the queue</a> which turned it into a pilgrimage. It was not about the destination as much as it was, as one person <a href="https://twitter.com/SocialistNProud/status/1571080688820166656">put it on Twitter</a>, about “the journey filled with hardships, sacrifices and time for contemplation. ‘The Queue’ is an important part of the homage and short cuts do not show the proper flagellation of a committed mourner!”</p>
<h2>Modern pilgrims</h2>
<p>Resemblances to traditional pilgrimage are of course wide of the mark. The shared suffering and physical hardship experienced were only the result of the time it took <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2022-09-14/official-queen-lying-in-state-queue-tracker-shows-length-and-end-of-line-live">an estimated 250,000 people</a> to walk the relatively short distance to Westminster by way of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/14/queen-coffin-queues-30-hours-london">strict security</a> to be expected for a royal vigil in the Houses of Parliament. It was the inevitable consequence of a logistical challenge, not an intentional penitential practice.</p>
<p>No one expected <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291860?origin=crossref#metadata_info_tab_contents">miracles</a> or inner transformations to occur. And, although the desire to give thanks was a strong motivating factor, <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/235442523.pdf">gratitude</a> was directed not to a saint with access to heaven but to an earthly monarch in return for her 70 years of service. It was, as the Times leader <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-times-view-on-the-queue-for-the-queens-coffin-a-long-line-of-gratitude-kmtw20chp">put it</a>, “a long line of gratitude”. </p>
<p><a href="https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/news/latent-spirituality-revealed-in-mourning-for-the-queen/">Some scholars</a>, however, have attempted to explain the ritualised responses to the Queen’s death as a product of Britain’s latent spirituality. This resonates with the rise, in today’s rapidly secularising society, of a new kind of pilgrimage. The Camino has become a model here, with people walking it for <a href="https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijrtp/vol7/iss5/4/">spiritual</a>, as <a href="https://theconversation.com/skateboardings-spiritual-side-skaters-find-meaning-in-falls-and-breaking-the-monotony-of-urban-life-177021">distinct</a> from religious reasons. On the Camino, the journey is valued over the destination. Undertaking it is seen as a rewarding physical challenge. One that is ideally experienced on foot. </p>
<p>Other recently rejuvenated routes include the <a href="https://www.viefrancigene.org/it/">Via Francigena</a>, which runs from Canterbury to Rome, and the <a href="https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2022/16-september/news/uk/medieval-pilgrimage-route-reopens">Walsingham Way</a> in Norfolk. The rise in popularity of these new pilgrimages has prompted the idea that we are living in a <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/301313786.pdf">post-secular age</a> with many people searching for meaning through alternatives to institutional religion. </p>
<p>The queue to file past Queen Elizabeth’s coffin is not a new phenomenon. In 1952 the public reacted in a similar way to the death of George VI. </p>
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<p>Today, the revival of the ancient descriptor “pilgrim” – and a British public ready to describe themselves as such – can help us better understand this deeply felt moment in history and shared human experience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Bailey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Waiting in line to see the Queen lying in state resonates with other contemporary, post-secular forms of pilgrimage.Anne Bailey, Associate Member of the History Faculty, University of Oxford, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1844182022-07-06T19:20:07Z2022-07-06T19:20:07ZFrom caravans to markets, the hajj pilgrimage has always included a commercial component<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472864/original/file-20220706-24-ndntzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=85%2C24%2C8045%2C5388&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A view of the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque during the hajj pilgrimage in the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia on July 6, 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SaudiArabiaHajj/1ac9b0704ee7470688d0e419c9ed06af/photo?Query=hajj%202022&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=65&currentItemNo=25">AP Photo/Amr Nabil</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In early June 2022, <a href="http://www.eumuslims.org/en/media-centre/news/saudi-arabia-western-pilgrims-no-longer-able-book-hajj-travel-agencies">Saudi Arabia announced a hajj “lottery” for Western pilgrims</a> that made it mandatory for people from Europe, the Americas and Australia to apply for visas through a random draw through the <a href="https://www.motawif.com.sa/home/en-eu">Saudi government-backed website</a>. This new website also offered customized and <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-arabia-hajj-website-crashes-lottery-western-pilgrims-opens">VIP packages</a> while attempting to replace the services that tour agencies had offered for decades. </p>
<p>This year, an estimated 1 million people will perform the hajj, which is considered one of the five pillars in Islam. Under the lottery, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/saudi-arabias-new-hajj-lottery-has-many-muslims-fuming/a-62368626">only 50,000 permits were allowed</a> from these 50 countries, compared with <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/saudi-arabia-hajj-british-muslims-in-uproar-over-travel-chaos-12642092">25,000 for U.K. Muslims</a> alone in previous years.</p>
<p>The resulting chaos left both pilgrims and travel agencies frustrated. Many Muslims who had already made their plans found they could not rebook under the new plan because of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/01/motawif-hajj/">malfunctioning websites</a>, among other issues. Several among those who were able to arrive in Saudi Arabia found <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hajj-western-pilgrims-left-no-hotel-room-days-pilgrimage">that the hotel rooms they had paid for were no longer available or were double-booked</a>. </p>
<p>The impact extends beyond individual pilgrims. Tour agencies will potentially lose out on thousands of dollars in revenue per prospective pilgrim. The cost of hajj packages has been rising <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-haj-egypt/higher-living-costs-fees-force-many-egyptians-to-drop-haj-plans-idUSKBN1L21FB">for many years</a> across the globe. For pilgrims leaving from the United States, trips can range between <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-arabia-hajj-pilgrims-and-tour-operators-question-lottery-system">US$12,000 and $20,000</a>. <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hajj-lottery-saudi-arabia-decision-devastates-uk-muslims">Cutting out travel agencies</a> that function as middlemen might help reduce these costs. But under the new system, the money will be channeled to the Saudi government, which aims <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/01/tourism-to-replace-oil-economy-in-saudi-arabia.html">to decrease its dependence on oil revenue through an increase in tourism activities</a>. This has reignited an ongoing debate on the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/14/mecca-hajj-saudi-arabia">commercialization of the hajj</a> under Saudi Arabia’s influence. </p>
<p>While Saudi Arabia sought to cut out the Western tour agencies reaping profit from hajj, their own offerings outlined “silver,” “gold” and “platinum” packages, boasting of “<a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hajj-lottery-explained-random-draw-western-pilgrims">luxurious services,” five-star stays in Mecca and Medina, and “superior camping spots equipped with excellent facilities and modern furniture</a>.” </p>
<p>The current changes to the hajj system are just one example of centuries of economics mixing with tradition. Generally, pilgrims try to emulate the <a href="http://www.jstor.com/stable/20789596">hajj rituals in the order of the Prophet Muhammad’s own last pilgrimage before his death</a>. Those rituals emphasize the cleansing of the soul, detachment from worldly concerns and rejection of status distinctions among Muslims, symbolized by the donning of the <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/life-style/travel-and-tourism/2015/09/22/The-white-robes-of-Hajj-make-all-pilgrims-equal">white garments that all pilgrims wear</a>. Pilgrims continue to wear these robes in the service of these goals, but they also <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/ed3493baea0c4cb9a81dcb58e2a7cef0_18.jpeg">travel to the various sites</a> in luxurious high-speed trains and buses. </p>
<p>In the past, too, the commercial, technological and secular aspects of the hajj have been a topic of much <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/hajj-saudi-arabia-mecca-pilgrimage-commercialisation-riches-reclaim-worship-a7919606.html">debate</a> about whether they <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43133576">change the spiritual</a> nature of the pilgrimage. <a href="https://history.umbc.edu/spotlight-dr-noor-zaidi/">As a scholar of pilgrimage, ritual and Islam</a>, I know that the focus on commerce and profits has been part of the long history of the hajj. </p>
<h2>Early roots of trade and commerce</h2>
<p>Across religious traditions, pilgrimages have always had a commercial component. From pilgrimage caravans and markets that grow around religious sites to the gifting of relics and souvenirs, <a href="https://durkheim.uchicago.edu/Summaries/forms.html">religion and commerce have been deeply linked</a>. </p>
<p>The hajj is no different. As F.E. Peters, an eminent scholar of Islamic studies, noted in his 1994 <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=EK5MqskDYC0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=commerce&f=false">significant study</a> on the hajj, the Quran itself acknowledges that Muslims were permitted to indulge in commerce around the pilgrimage: Verse <a href="https://quran.com/2/198">2:198</a> in the Quran says, “There is no blame on you for seeking the bounty of your Lord during this journey.” Quranic commentaries have explained this verse to mean that Islam <a href="https://aboutislam.net/counseling/ask-the-scholar/hajj/can-i-engage-in-business-during-hajj/">allows commercial activity</a> before and after the days of hajj rituals. </p>
<p>As Islam spread, so did the commerce. While the narrow set of ritual acts of hajj remained, the total pilgrimage experience was shaped by business. For centuries, <a href="https://www.arabnews.pk/sites/default/files/userimages/20/routes-to-makkah-map.jpg">major overland caravan routes</a> traveled through Damascus, Cairo and Baghdad, with merchants attaching themselves to these caravans. </p>
<p>Traders targeted the pilgrims as consumers, and many pilgrims themselves <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=2pwuAh0ujPMC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">engaged in trade</a> to pay their way. As traveling overland for the hajj journey could take <a href="https://doi.org/10.21832/9781845416157-015">up to two years</a>, pilgrims traded fruits, wines, silk, carpets and other items. They purchased goods such as coffee and pearls for <a href="http://www.uplbooks.com/book/pious-passengers-hajj-earlier-times">their return journey</a>. </p>
<h2>A changing world, a changing hajj</h2>
<p>The evolution of technology and means of travel inevitably brought new economic considerations into the organization of the hajj. The invention of the steamship was central to the development of mass pilgrimage to Mecca in the 19th century – the total number of pilgrims per year rose from an estimated 112,000 participants in 1831 <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30069613">to some 300,000 in 1910</a>. </p>
<p>European liner companies <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4125193">controlled major</a> pilgrim sea routes, linking hajj to imperial business opportunities. In 1886, the British government called in the famed Thomas Cook & Son, the original package holiday entrepreneurs, to become <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/package-tour-to-mecca-how-the-hajj-became-an-essential-part-of-the-british-calendar">official travel agents of the hajj</a>. </p>
<p>The use of a for-profit tourism company to regulate the hajj may have seemed a new development, but agents and intermediaries had been central to the process for centuries. The “mutawwifin,” the hereditary guilds of pilgrimage guides, provided pilgrims with guidance in carrying out the rituals of the hajj and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30069613">were central to Mecca’s government and its economy</a>.</p>
<p>Over the centuries, these local guides would develop contacts in foreign lands, encouraging Muslims to perform the pilgrimage. In addition to linguistic and ritual guidance, the mutawwifin would also arrange meals, lodgings and tents – acting in ways that were <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4125193">similar to modern-day tour operators</a>.</p>
<h2>The modern era</h2>
<p>The steamship was just one technological innovation that altered the hajj landscape into a more commercial venture. At the turn of the 20th century, Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire was an adamant promoter of the construction of the <a href="https://books.openedition.org/ifpo/docannexe/image/5005/img-1.jpg">Hejaz Railway</a>, meant to establish a connection between Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. </p>
<p>Proponents of the railway argued that it would both significantly improve conditions for pilgrims on the overland routes and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=EK5MqskDYC0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=al-Munir&f=false">help the establishment of commerce and trade</a>. </p>
<p>The establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932 and the eventual replacement of shipping and rail with air transport transformed the nature of the hajj further. The new Saudi state adhered to the doctrine of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Wahhabi">Wahhabism</a>, an Islamic reform movement originating in the 1700s that rejected all forms of innovations outside of the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad in his time. </p>
<p>Yet despite this condemnation of innovation, the Saudi government has overseen decades of commercial development of the hajj, encouraging the <a href="https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/v2030/vrps/pep/">tourism atmosphere</a> and deriving <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/is-saudi-arabia-unfairly-profiting-from-its-holy-sites-28899">significant profits</a> from the obligatory pilgrimage. </p>
<h2>Commerce or politics?</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472867/original/file-20220706-4568-h7xf2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men dressed in loose white garments sitting on top of a hill, while multitudes of people are gathered below." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472867/original/file-20220706-4568-h7xf2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472867/original/file-20220706-4568-h7xf2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472867/original/file-20220706-4568-h7xf2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472867/original/file-20220706-4568-h7xf2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472867/original/file-20220706-4568-h7xf2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472867/original/file-20220706-4568-h7xf2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472867/original/file-20220706-4568-h7xf2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Muslim pilgrims pray on a rocky hill called the Mountain of Mercy near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MideastSaudiHajjPhotoEssay/67c1fda03dba48fc9df73c7b07ba7c9e/photo?Query=hajj%20%20&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=3237&currentItemNo=4">AP Photo/Amr Nabil</a></span>
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<p>While the hajj has historically been linked to commerce, pilgrims of late have <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/188182221.pdf">expressed dissatisfaction</a> with the overt emphasis on the touristic experience and the sense that it is now diminishing the spiritual nature of the pilgrimage. </p>
<p>Indeed, commercial revenues from the hajj remain a contested and even a political topic. In 2018, Yusuf al Qaradawi, a prominent Muslim Brotherhood cleric based in Qatar, issued a fatwa calling for limiting spending on pilgrimage. “Seeing Muslims feeding the hungry, treating the sick and sheltering the homeless are better viewed by Allah than spending money on the hajj and <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/umrah-islamic-religious-pilgrimage-explained-mecca-saudi-arabia">umrah</a> every year,” he declared. This statement was viewed as an attempt <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/features/2018/08/23/Qaradawi-fatwa-about-hajj-draws-Muslim-ire">to undermine Saudi Arabia</a> by discouraging Muslims from performing the pilgrimage, as the revenues go to the government. </p>
<p>Al Qaradawi’s fatwa drew ire from certain circles, as all Muslims who are financially and physically capable must attempt to complete the hajj, regardless of any geopolitical sentiment toward Saudi Arabia. Yet there is no doubt that the current hajj has refocused attention on whether the business of hajj remains in line with the original allowance to “seek bounty” during the pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest sites.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184418/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noorzehra Zaidi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The start of the hajj is reigniting debates around its commercialization, but pilgrimages are also a time for seeking business opportunities, writes a scholar of Islam.Noorzehra Zaidi, Assistant Professor of HIstory, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1816992022-05-04T12:34:49Z2022-05-04T12:34:49ZWhat makes religious relics – like pieces of the ‘true cross’ and hair of saints – sacred to Christians<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461043/original/file-20220503-43085-in1z5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=83%2C58%2C5474%2C3641&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Christian clergymen carry a wooden relic believed to be from Jesus' manger at the Notre Dame church in Jerusalem in 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/HolyLandJesusManger/aee3c0798d49413ca518397ae20040db/photo?Query=%20relic%20christian&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=63&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A Russian missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of its Black Sea fleet, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/22/europe/moskva-russia-casualties-intl/index.html">sunk after it was heavily damaged</a> in April 2022. Kremlin officials said that a fire on board caused munitions to explode, while <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092799610/moskva-flagship-damaged">Ukrainian officials claimed</a> they had attacked the Moskva. Several <a href="https://www.jpost.com/christianworld/article-704498">media reports noted</a> that the ship might have been carrying a relic of the “true cross,” a piece of the actual wooden cross on which Christians believe that Jesus suffered and died. </p>
<p>The possibility of the relic being on the sunken ship cannot be ruled out. A collector is said to have donated the relic in 2020 to the Russian navy, which planned to place it <a href="https://tass.com/society/1123855">in the Moskva’s onboard</a> chapel. It is unclear, however, whether the relic was on board the ship in its chapel when the vessel went into combat. But the widespread interest in the possibility of this ancient relic being on board points to its importance for many Christians.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/joanne-pierce">expert in medieval Christian liturgy and worship</a>, I know that veneration of relics has a long history in Christian devotional practice.</p>
<h2>Venerating martyrs</h2>
<p>In the first three centuries of Christianity, Christians, whose religion was outlawed, prayed at the entombed bodies of martyrs, who were executed for refusing to renounce their new faith.</p>
<p>After the Roman Empire legalized Christianity in the early fourth century, smaller buildings called <a href="https://www.catholicsandcultures.org/practices-values/shrines-pilgrimage">shrine churches</a> were sometimes built around the tomb of a martyr. At times, the <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/ambrose-letter22.asp">bodies of the martyr were exhumed by local bishops</a> and reburied within the city itself, in a special tomb beneath the floor of a larger church or basilica. </p>
<p>Prior to this practice, bodies of the dead were kept in <a href="https://ontheruinofbritain.wordpress.com/2019/02/21/christianity-and-relics-part-four-the-public-cult/">tombs and catacombs built outside of the city’s walls</a> so as to separate them from the “city” of the living. But Christians believed in the power of the martyrs and, later, other saintly persons to intercede on their behalf with God. Saints were respected and their relics and images venerated, but they <a href="https://www.catholic.com/qa/why-veneration-isnt-idol-worship">were not adored or worshipped</a> as God might be.</p>
<h2>Jesus’ cross</h2>
<p>After Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity, Jerusalem became an important center for Christians who wanted to make religious trips to visit the places where Jesus and his apostles lived and preached. The term pilgrimage, <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/pilgrim#:">meaning journey</a>, originated at the time.</p>
<p>During this time, what was believed to be a piece of the “True Cross” <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-history-of-the-cross-and-its-many-meanings-over-the-centuries-123316">was brought back to Europe</a> – supposedly by St. Helena, the emperor’s mother – and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/03/23/living/jesus-true-cross/index.html#:%7E:text=The%20true%20cross%20of%20Jesus%20had%20been%20revealed.,make%20a%20big%20ship%2Dload">broken up into smaller pieces</a>. </p>
<p>Another section remained in Jerusalem and was venerated there, until in the early seventh century a Persian emperor, a Zoroastrian, conquered the city and removed the relic among the spoils of war. Several years later, the Persians were themselves conquered by the Christian emperor Heraclius, <a href="https://aleteia.org/2019/09/14/when-an-emperor-tried-to-carry-jesus-cross-with-great-pomp-this-miracle-happened/">who returned the relic to Jerusalem</a>. There it remained, even after the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem later that century. </p>
<h2>Pilgrimage to see relics</h2>
<p>As Christianity spread throughout Europe, beyond the boundaries of the Roman Empire, so did the practice of venerating the saints. </p>
<p>The demands for a saintly “body” increased, and so the remains of famous or local saints were divided into pieces, which included clippings of hair, or sometimes whole body parts. These “relics” – from a <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/relic">Latin word meaning</a> “something left behind” – were frequently placed in special containers or display cases, called reliquaries. </p>
<p>These were usually especially elaborate, <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/relc/hd_relc.htm">made of precious metals and adorned with jewels</a> as a reflection of the special reverence for these elements that had touched the body of Jesus Christ. </p>
<p>The more famous the relic, the more pilgrims would make their way to the church or monastery where it was kept, and the more the clergy <a href="https://blog.oup.com/2011/12/pilgrimage/">could earn through the offerings visitors made at the shrine</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Devotees carrying the relic of Saint Gregory, in a procession through green fields in Sorlada, northern Spain." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Devotees take part in a pilgrimage with the ancient relic of Saint Gregory in Sorlada, northern Spain, in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXSpainSaintGregoryRomeria/d248fee6cfd940b3bb75fff0dd695869/photo?Query=%20relic%20pilgrimage&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=27&currentItemNo=20">AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the turn of the millennium, the number of pilgrims traveling to visit Jerusalem from Europe increased, but <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/story-of-christianity-volume-1-the-justo-l-gonzalez?variant=32130902097954">tensions mounted</a> between Muslim rulers and Christian leaders. There was friction among various Christian nobles and kings as well. Because of this, in the late 11th to the late 13th centuries, Christian political and religious leaders <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-history-of-the-cross-and-its-many-meanings-over-the-centuries-123316">led a series of major wars – the Crusades</a> – to regain control of the Holy Land from its Muslim ruler. </p>
<p>One result was an increase in the number of “relics” of Jesus, Mary and other New Testament figures brought back to Europe and circulated as authentic. </p>
<p>Some of these included fragments of bone or hair from apostles or other saintly figures, while others consisted of scraps of fabric from their clothing. Most esteemed of all were objects that <a href="https://www.medievalists.net/2016/04/crusaders-pilgrims-and-relics-bearers-of-the-cross-material-religion-in-the-crusading-world-1095-1300/#:">supposedly had touched the body of Jesus himself</a>, especially those connected with his suffering and death, such as the spikes used to nail him to the cross.</p>
<h2>Power of relics</h2>
<p>By the end of the medieval period, there was an overwhelming number of stories associating relics with miracles, such as unexpected healings or protection from the dangers of weather. </p>
<p>Many ordinary Christians treated the relics as a kind of lucky rabbit’s foot, owned or reverenced for personal protection. This was true for relics of the true cross as well. In Venice, for example, several <a href="https://brewminate.com/medieval-relics-and-society-the-miracles-of-the-true-cross/">miracle stories of the true cross</a>, especially of it saving ships from storms, circulated widely.</p>
<p>During the Reformation of the 16th century, many European Protestant writers objected to the Catholic veneration of relics. Most felt that it was a practice not found in the Bible; others felt that many believers were worshipping saints as if they were divine, and that many devotional practices involving relics involved fraud and superstition, not genuine prayer. The Protestant theologian John Calvin <a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/treatise_relics.v.html">suggested</a> that if all of the supposed fragments of the “True Cross” were gathered together, they would fill an entire ship. </p>
<p>Even some Catholic scholars of the period, notably Erasmus of Rotterdam, <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30201/30201-h/30201-h.htm">criticized the fraudulent manipulation of believers</a> for cash offerings when visiting shrines, and questioned the authenticity of many relics. </p>
<p>In 1563, the Catholic Council of Trent responded to all of these criticisms by clarifying the Catholic view of relics in an official decree. In the document, the assembled bishops stressed that <a href="https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct25.html">devotional activities involving relics should not border on superstition</a> in any way, that “filthy lucre” – buying and selling of relics – be “abolished” and that veneration ceremonies not devolve into “revellings and drunkenness.”</p>
<h2>What makes a relic more precious</h2>
<p>Until very recently, Catholic tradition divided relics into several classes, depending on their relationship to Christ or the saints. A <a href="https://www.scripturecatholic.com/catholic-relics/#First_Class_Relics">first-class relic</a> was a fragment of a saint’s actual body, like a tooth, hair clipping, or sliver of bone.</p>
<p>Pieces of objects involved in the Passion of Christ were also included in this class, since traditional theology teaches that Jesus Christ <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2024%3A1-12&version=NRSV">rose again from the dead after three days in the tomb</a> and ascended bodily into heaven 40 days after. </p>
<p>Whether prized as a lucky charm or venerated as a powerful reminder of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, this Russian relic of the true cross has taken its place in the paradoxical history of these valuable religious objects: The peaceful message of Jesus has often been lost in the violent chaos of war.</p>
<p>[<em>Explore the intersection of faith, politics, arts and culture.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-explore">Sign up for This Week in Religion.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne M. Pierce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Relics often provided a way to bring more pilgrims into a church – and therefore, more offerings.Joanne M. Pierce, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1770212022-03-03T13:26:55Z2022-03-03T13:26:55ZSkateboarding’s spiritual side – skaters find meaning in falls and breaking the monotony of urban life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449605/original/file-20220302-17-1flduab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=115%2C23%2C5002%2C3337&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A skateboarder attempts a jump.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-men-skateboarding-in-urban-environment-royalty-free-image/542722993?adppopup=true"> MoMo Productions/Collections Stone via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the last decade the numbers of those identifying as “Spiritual But Not Religious,” or SBNR, have continued to increase. In 2017, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/">Pew Research Center</a> found that <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/06/more-americans-now-say-theyre-spiritual-but-not-religious/">a quarter of Americans</a> identified as SBNR. </p>
<p>Sociologist <a href="https://sociology.unc.edu/wade-clark-roof/">Wade Roof Clark</a> argues that the current trend started with the Baby Boomer generation, which began more broadly exploring <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691089966/spiritual-marketplace">spiritual options</a> in the 1960s and ‘70s.</p>
<p>Those identifying as spiritual tend to adopt different forms of spirituality <a href="https://www.prri.org/press-release/new-survey-one-five-americans-spiritual-not-religious/">while embracing some elements of religion or rejecting religion altogether</a>. Many scholars believe this to be an attempt by individuals <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199931002.001.0001">to resist religious authority</a>. As individuals explore different spiritual resources, they may blend forms of practices like yoga or meditation while also taking on everyday life experiences as part of a spiritual journey.</p>
<p>In 2020, along with a research colleague, I began looking at everyday practices that might be considered spiritual. </p>
<p>Building upon other research projects noting the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/understanding-sport-as-a-religious-phenomenon-9781472514059/">similarities between sports and religion</a> in society today, we interviewed skaters at skate parks to see how they understood skateboarding. </p>
<p>After conducting our research, we concluded that there are spiritual elements to skateboarding for some within the skateboarding community. </p>
<h2>Dealing with a harsh urban environment</h2>
<p>For our research, we began hanging out at three local skate parks as a way of establishing trust with the skaters. My research colleague is a skater, and she educated me on specific tricks, the skating culture and the slang. Noting those who tended to be regulars, we began to conduct interviews, asking the skaters about style, tricks and, ultimately, what skateboarding means to them. Because of the pandemic, we pivoted to asking skaters to complete an online, open-ended survey. We were able to garner seven interviews and 24 survey responses. None of our respondents identified with any religious tradition.</p>
<p>The skaters we interviewed often acknowledged that through skateboarding, they were able to give meaning to their local spaces, which tended to lack natural fauna. Accepting one’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2017.1390567">environment of concrete sidewalks, stairs and parking lots</a> can lead to a spiritual practice of imagination. </p>
<p>Where many people see the banal aspects of urban geographies, skateboarders can see opportunities for exploration, as we found. One skater explained, “I don’t see skateboarding as a sport, but a way to navigate and manipulate an urban environment in ways you see fit.”</p>
<h2>Failure as spiritual</h2>
<p>Skateboarding can be dangerous and lead to multiple types of <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2786458?casa_token=BRPxKUqylbkAAAAA:sdHYqxIhBLykjjjhIygebf0M68Cod2vC-S6t7kAEGODlQPRp6tkvbFPj9pKXkr4IEMDVPTPk_A">physical injuries</a>. A quick scan of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVRs2uwFyw0">skating videos</a> on YouTube will demonstrate how often skaters fail to land tricks or even injure themselves skating.</p>
<p>After we analyzed our interview data, which is being published in a forthcoming journal, we began to understand failing as a spiritual exercise. Whereas many religious objectives include working toward perfection, spiritual practices often embrace <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Spirituality_of_Imperfection/5B5dgtFUuJAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=spirituality+imperfection&pg=PR7&printsec=frontcover">the imperfect</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Male skateboarder falling off of railing in skate park ." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449611/original/file-20220302-30463-tgwlgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449611/original/file-20220302-30463-tgwlgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449611/original/file-20220302-30463-tgwlgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449611/original/file-20220302-30463-tgwlgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449611/original/file-20220302-30463-tgwlgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449611/original/file-20220302-30463-tgwlgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449611/original/file-20220302-30463-tgwlgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Accepting failures is part of the practice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/skateboarder-falling-off-of-railing-in-skate-park-royalty-free-image/516750419?adppopup=true">Thomas Barwick/Collection DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2019.101603">Scholars have argued</a> that religion and spirituality enhance athletic performance by creating mechanisms to cope with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2021.1891123">performance failure and injury</a>. Yet, other studies indicate some concepts of <a href="https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=jcskls">religious perfectionism</a> actually interfere with athletic performance. </p>
<p>What we learned is that the dangerous elements of skateboarding separate the exercise compared to sports that are deemed safer. Certainly there are risks involved in <a href="https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/safety-topics/sports-and-recreational-injuries/">many team sports</a>, but skateboarders understand those risks differently. In skaters’ minds, the dangerous elements of skateboarding separate it over and against safer sports. They understand the risks as something crucial and valuable to be accepted.</p>
<p>“You don’t always want to land stuff, you know?” explained a skater, “And that’s how you know you’re alive because you almost died kind of thing.” In fact, failing and falling (known as slamming) is integral in skating practices, a spiritual rite of passage. “Falling is easily half the battle, if not more. That’s the rite of passage to being a ‘skateboarder.’ It’s not your friend. It hardly likes you. And it will put you in your place real quick.” </p>
<p>Furthermore, the rite of passage of slamming proves a skater’s authenticity into the skating community. “You’ve got to be willing to pay for your time in blood, or else you’re just a culture vulture,” is how one skater described this rite. </p>
<h2>Skateboarding as a spiritual cure</h2>
<p>The more we spoke with skateboarders, the more we realized that skating is a spiritual exercise, possibly a kind of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/15327086211004879?casa_token=knV6jnk4cZUAAAAA%3AGsdhcv4fTuwm6pA4StcX1bWbEbc8ndtkdSaiLNYsgO0JYyNRTXUy1jqMWOEs4a07YkFEXI6tI6X-&">remedy against boredom in modern life</a>. Past studies have shown that skateboarding provides <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-009-9140-y">moments of autonomy and freedom</a>. </p>
<p>Skateboarding was almost like a spiritual tool to re-imagine the monotony of life in urban geographies. Landing a kick flip or grinding down a handrail yields an exuberance and an outlet. One skater explained, “Skateboarding gave me independence, confidence and a way to express myself and my artistic traits.” </p>
<p>Another skater told us as he sat on his skateboard and the sun set: “You have to be willing and dedicated so much for something that actually has no value to anyone except yourself. Falling teaches you that sometimes in life shit’s not easy. There are so many obstacles along the way, but you need to figure them out, learn, adapt and continue to move forward and obtain the goal you’ve been wanting to accomplish.”</p>
<p>Others described the ways in which skateboarding is a meditative practice. When we asked another skater to simply describe what skateboarding is, he offered: “Infinity, and it represents openness. It’s a lifestyle for inventor minds. Skateboarding is falling down and getting back up. Inventing. Playing for the sake of playing. Toying around. That is why I do it and what I feel from my participation is similar to meditation, like a lulled-out, relaxed state – the very act of riding the board changes the way you move through life.”</p>
<p>Although skateboarding and skateboarders generally are stereotyped as vulgar <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/25/nyregion/skaters-want-a-better-image.html">trespassers who damage property</a>, skateboarding itself seems to be a way for some individuals to cope with the conditions of the contemporary world. </p>
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<p>We’re not the only researchers to find correlations between skateboarding and religion and spirituality. Sociologist <a href="https://www.pauljamesoconnor.com/">Paul O'Connor</a> <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-24857-4">discovered religious elements</a> in skateboarding, like iconography of certain popular skaters and pilgrimage spaces marked as sacred in the skating world. He even describes skating as a “DIY (Do It Yourself) religion.”</p>
<p>Spiritual practices don’t always mean supernatural. Instead, spirituality is often about examining the everyday and asking how meaningful exercises can be developed to cultivate the individual into a better person.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177021/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terry Shoemaker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ‘Spiritual But Not Religious’ are embracing different forms of spirituality – skateboarding may be one of them.Terry Shoemaker, Lecturer in Religious Studies, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1742082022-01-20T13:31:19Z2022-01-20T13:31:19ZWhy you might want to consider a pilgrimage for your next holiday or day trip<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441324/original/file-20220118-25-18zpurk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=146%2C48%2C5295%2C3557&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hiker-backpacks-relaxing-on-top-mountain-1457014196">Vixit/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We have been living in a COVID-19 pandemic world for two years – and almost everything about our lives has been affected. Travel and holidays in particular have been constrained through border closures and lockdowns. It’s too early to say what effect this may have on overseas travel long term. But <a href="https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-tips/travel-trends/pilgrimage-travel">one form of travel</a> that is forecast to grow in popularity is <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/could-pilgrimages-be-the-next-post-covid-travel-trend">pilgrimage</a>. </p>
<p>Often described as “a journey with a purpose or <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/books/a-pilgrimage-is-a-journey-with-a-purpose-ken-haigh-walked-the-canterbury-trail-in-honour-of-his-late-father-1.6209494">a journey with an intention”</a>, a pilgrimage is different from a plain old walk or hike as it tends to be about following a particular path with religious, spiritual or historical significance.</p>
<p>Pilgrimages are a way of finding spiritual solace and a chance to connect with the great outdoors. Indeed, since the pandemic began, many of us have spent more time close to <a href="https://www.travelyesplease.com/travel-blog-nachisan-japan/">mountains</a>, rivers, waterfalls and <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/articles/howhaslockdownchangedourrelationshipwithnature/2021-04-26">parks</a>, for <a href="https://www.nature.scot/more-people-spending-time-outdoors-new-survey-reveals-importance-nature-scotlands-recovery-covid-19">psychological recovery</a>, <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/more-time-out-in-nature-is-an-unexpected-benefit-of-the-covid-19-sheltering-rules/">spiritual recharge</a>, and as a form of <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/11/4/177">meaningful travel</a>. </p>
<p>New and repurposed pilgrimages have also emerged in many destinations including <a href="https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/follow-the-ancient-pilgrims-through-caithness-with-new-guide-257372/">Scotland</a>, India, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20211207-the-michinoku-coastal-trail-japans-new-1000km-path">Japan</a>, <a href="https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/9-july/news/uk/three-new-pilgrim-routes-link-ancient-sites-and-churches-in-devon">England</a> and Italy. While some routes have historical origins, others are modern, newly developed or resignified – such as the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59837381">Ancient Connections</a> project linking St David’s, Pembrokeshire, in Wales to Ferns, County Wexford, in Ireland. The project aims to revive and celebrate the <a href="https://fernsvillage.ie/ancient-connections/">medieval connections</a> between the two Celtic lands.</p>
<p>Pilgrims walk these trails for different reasons. For some, the experience has religious significance, but for others, it’s about <a href="https://www.pembroke-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=132439&searchyear=2021">finding some quality time to think</a>, breathe, heal and discover oneself, during a <a href="https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/travel/pilgrimages-camino-santiago-holy-year-uk-routes-817051">a simple walk</a>. </p>
<h2>Walking the path</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/bethlehem-closed-to-foreign-christians-christmas.html">The restrictions</a> imposed on religious sites during the earlier phase of the pandemic did little to curb pilgrims’ enthusiasm. Indeed, increasing numbers of <a href="https://www.walkingtopresence.com/articles/korean-edition-of-pilgrim-stories">South Koreans</a> have walked the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. Meanwhile, <a href="https://aleteia.org/2021/02/14/live-lent-with-a-devotion-of-the-early-christians-join-us-to-see-romes-station-churches/">alternative ways</a> of meeting pilgrims’ needs have also emerged, including the <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/246413/catholic-groups-announce-virtual-pilgrimage-to-holy-land">virtual pilgrimage</a>. </p>
<p>Fitness <a href="https://www.theconqueror.events/camino/">apps</a> and <a href="https://www.pilgrimageonline.live/">virtual guided tours</a> of the Camino have been popular. <a href="https://llandaff.churchinwales.org.uk/en/news-and-blog/pilgrims-progress-thanks-google-earth/#:%7E:text=Church%20in%20Wales%20is%20launching%20its%20first%20ever,including%20three%20churches%20from%20the%20Diocese%20of%20Llandaff.">The Church in Wales</a> also created an online pilgrimage route where e-pilgrims could explore some of Wales’ historic churches, while Japan’s <a href="https://japantoday.com/category/features/travel/online-pilgrimages-along-japan%E2%80%99s-famous-shikoku-henro-route-begin">Shikoku pilgrimage</a> started offering real-time online pilgrimages for those unable to participate in a physical pilgrimage. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mount Fuji and walkers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441325/original/file-20220118-21-gbh9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441325/original/file-20220118-21-gbh9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441325/original/file-20220118-21-gbh9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441325/original/file-20220118-21-gbh9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441325/original/file-20220118-21-gbh9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441325/original/file-20220118-21-gbh9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441325/original/file-20220118-21-gbh9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Torii on top of Fuji mountain. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan at 3,776m, and a symbol of Japan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mount-fuji-yamanashi-japan-july-25-689407390">MADSOLAR/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of the pilgrimage routes also provide distinctive cultural experiences such as Japanese traditional cooking and art and craft classes, or Welsh tea and cakes. The new <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20211207-the-michinoku-coastal-trail-japans-new-1000km-path">Michinoku (the ancient name of Tohoku) coastal trail</a> in Japan, for example, has already spurred interest from national and international travellers, and it is expected to become an iconic hiking route, while it is hoped that the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59837381">new Wales-Ireland pilgrimage</a> walking route will help to boost local economies – and is forecast to attract around 5,000 people a year. </p>
<p>Of course, maintaining pilgrimage sites and routes is crucial for cultural heritage and protection. This also has the potential to create new livelihoods and bring much-needed <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-ways-to-ensure-wellness-tourism-provides-a-post-pandemic-opportunity-for-the-travel-industry-148744">tourism</a> to rural or remote areas. In <a href="https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/plans-underway-to-complete-buddhist-pilgrimage-site-in-nagarjuna-sagar-central-india/">central India</a>, for example, a Buddhist pilgrimage site in Nagarjuna is being developed as part of an effort to revitalise Buddhist heritage in the region. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.yahoo.com/now/sacred-hiking-trail-bhutan-reopening-220648822.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr">In Bhutan</a>, a sacred hiking trail, that fell into disrepair because of highway construction, is reopening after 60 years with trail tourism programmes packaged to support local homestays, guesthouses and hotels. In the 16th century, the trail – which follows the route along the ancient Silk Road – was the only way of getting between the east and west of the country. And it served as the pilgrimage route for Buddhists in the east to travel to sacred sites in western Bhutan and Tibet. </p>
<h2>Where to start</h2>
<p>As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/08/covid-crisis-dramatically-worsened-global-mental-health-study-finds">mental health issues</a> have come to the fore during the pandemic, walking – with its <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/16078055.2018.1445025">proven psychological and therapeutic benefits</a> – has been a popular activity for many as a way of coping with stress and anxiety. And <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/could-pilgrimages-be-the-next-post-covid-travel-trend">during pilgrimage walks</a>, people often observe and appreciate simple things more keenly, feel the spiritual connection with their surroundings and gain new, enriching life perspectives. </p>
<p>So if you’re keen to get your walking boots on, for those based in the UK, there is an array of new pilgrimage routes to explore. Many of these were established during the pandemic such as the <a href="https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/travel/the-northern-saints-trails-offer-a-chance-for-a-reflective-hiking-challenge-after-lockdown-905304">Northern Saints Trails</a> in the north-east of England, the <a href="https://www.northnorfolknews.co.uk/news/pilgrimage-route-launched-through-dazzling-norfolk-countryside-7994454">Walsingham Way</a> in East Anglia, <a href="https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/belfast-comedian-tim-mcgarry-set-to-take-on-new-st-patricks-way-coastal-walk-40465916.html">St Patrick’s Way</a> in Northern Ireland, the <a href="https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/news-and-events/news/2021/articles/new-pilgrimage-walk-launched-in-honour-of-glasgows-patron-saint">Kentigern Way</a> in Scotland, and the <a href="https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/teesside/18258259.new-long-distance-walk-launched-celebrate-saxon-saint-hild/">Way of St Hild</a> in Teesside. While the <a href="https://www.devonpilgrim.org.uk/">Devon Pilgrim</a>, part of the <a href="https://www.growingtheruralchurch.org/">Growing the Rural Church project</a>, which aims to connect rural churches with local communities and landscapes, launched no fewer than three new pilgrimage walks in the summer of 2021. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Hikers on a hill." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441326/original/file-20220118-25-14okjpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441326/original/file-20220118-25-14okjpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441326/original/file-20220118-25-14okjpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441326/original/file-20220118-25-14okjpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441326/original/file-20220118-25-14okjpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441326/original/file-20220118-25-14okjpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441326/original/file-20220118-25-14okjpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Enjoy the great outdoors with purpose.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-hikers-mountains-196099577">Olga Danylenko/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Church of England promotes many Christian-themed pilgrimages, and information about some of these can be found on the <a href="https://christian-pilgrimage.org.uk/routes-to-try/">Centre for Christian Pilgrimage website</a>. Organisations such as the <a href="https://britishpilgrimage.org/">British Pilgrimage Trust</a> and the <a href="https://www.sprf.org.uk/project3.html">Scottish Pilgrims Ways Forum</a> also offer guided pilgrimages and advice on self-guided walks. </p>
<p>Pilgrimages, however, need <a href="https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/24-january/features/features/travel-and-retreats-pilgrimage-squeezed-into-a-busy-schedule">not necessarily entail long hikes</a>. <a href="https://wayfaringbritain.com/events">Micro pilgrimages</a> and <a href="https://www.smallpilgrimplaces.org/">visits to pilgrimage places</a> are also a great way to find some time for quiet contemplation. And for those looking for a relatively stress-free experience, there is, of course, always the option of virtual pilgrimage allowing you to travel the world from the comfort of home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174208/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jaeyeon Choe O Regan is a researcher at Swansea University, UK and a visiting professor at Hue University, Vietnam </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Bailey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>During pilgrimage walks, people often observe and appreciate simple things more keenly, feel the spiritual connection with their surroundings and gain new, enriching life perspectives.Jaeyeon Choe, Researcher in Sustainable Tourism Development, Swansea UniversityAnne Bailey, Associate Member of the History Faculty, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1550232021-08-30T21:09:05Z2021-08-30T21:09:05ZWhat do Muslims believe and do? Understanding the 5 pillars of Islam<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432050/original/file-20211115-19-w8ohj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C7%2C5238%2C3447&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muslim women break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/muslimgirls-iftar-for-ramadan-sharing-dates-royalty-free-image/689079176?adppopup=true"> Muslim Girl/ DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>For people who would like to learn more about Islam, The Conversation is publishing <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/understanding-islam-108919">a series of articles</a>, available on our website or as <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/understanding-islam-79">six emails delivered every other day</a>, written by Senior Religion and Ethics Editor Kalpana Jain. Over the past few years she has commissioned dozens of articles on Islam written by academics. These articles draw from that archive and have been checked for accuracy by religion scholars.</em></p>
<p></p><hr><p></p>
<p>When I was growing up in India, my father’s Muslim friends would get me new clothes for Eid al-Fitr, a festival that celebrates the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, just as they would for their own children. Later in the day, loads of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb-SdMvzeLA">sewain</a>, a vermicelli dessert filled with nuts, would be sent to our home. </p>
<p>I learned about many cultural rituals in these interactions, but as someone who is not a Muslim, I did not have a deep theological understanding of the Islamic faith until reading the writings of our scholars as an ethics and religion editor. </p>
<p>Today, we will take you through some of the basic tenets of the Islamic faith. </p>
<p>For Muslims, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/profilesmuhammed.html">Prophet Muhammad</a> is the most revered of all men. He is the last and most authoritative in a line of prophets that includes Moses and Jesus and is believed to have received direct revelations from God through the archangel Gabriel. </p>
<p>These revelations form the basis of the Muslim holy text, the Quran. The Quran refers to God as Allah, which is the Arabic word for God.</p>
<p>Muslims belong to many different sects – including some you may have heard of, like Sunni and Shiite – but they all share these same fundamental beliefs.</p>
<p><iframe id="kuXl2" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/kuXl2/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>The Islamic faith</h2>
<p>There are five pillars – or basic tenets – of the Islamic faith. These are professing one’s faith; praying five times a day; giving zakat, or donating a certain portion of one’s wealth; fasting during Ramadan; and making a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. </p>
<p>Each of these pillars is an important part of being Muslim. As scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/rose-s-aslan-505827">Rose Aslan</a> writes, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-richard-dawkins-doesnt-get-about-the-muslim-call-to-prayer-100576">Many Muslims organize their days around the call to prayer and others stop what they are doing during the call and make supplications to God</a>.” </p>
<p>In countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and India, the call to prayer can be heard through loudspeakers mounted on minarets. The sacred text is recited by professionals to evoke piety in their listeners.</p>
<p>Muslims pray in the direction of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Inside mosques, a prayer niche, a recess in the wall, known as the mihrab, indicates the direction of Mecca.</p>
<p>Scholars explain that for many Muslims, the practice of prayer helps them experience God in an intimate way. The <a href="http://www.dar-al-masnavi.org/about_rumi.html">13th-century Persian Sufi poet Rumi</a> spoke of his experience of prayer as a “delight,” that opened the “window” of his soul. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417704/original/file-20210824-19623-1tle58m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photo of the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417704/original/file-20210824-19623-1tle58m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417704/original/file-20210824-19623-1tle58m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417704/original/file-20210824-19623-1tle58m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417704/original/file-20210824-19623-1tle58m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417704/original/file-20210824-19623-1tle58m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417704/original/file-20210824-19623-1tle58m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417704/original/file-20210824-19623-1tle58m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Kaaba (black structure in middle) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, has deep religious meaning to Muslims.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flickr.com/photos/76868981@N04/7046119769/in/album-72157629377343866/">UmmSqueaky/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For all Muslims who have the “physical and financial ability” to undertake the journey, the five-day pilgrimage to the Great Mosque of Mecca and the surrounding area is an obligation to be undertaken once in their lives. Inside the Great Mosque of Mecca is a black, cube-shaped structure, the Holy Kaaba.</p>
<p>The Kaaba holds a deep religious significance for Muslims. The Quran tells the story of Ibrahim, who, when commanded by God, agreed to sacrifice his son, Ismail. Scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ken-chitwood-160245">Ken Chitwood</a> explains that Muslims believe the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explaining-the-muslim-pilgrimage-of-hajj-83284">Kaaba holds the black stone upon which Ibrahim was to sacrifice Ismail</a>.</p>
<p>The pilgrimage ends with Eid al-Adha, the “feast of the sacrifice.”</p>
<h2>Fasts and feasts</h2>
<p>If you have heard about or seen your Muslim neighbors fasting, then what they are observing is Ramadan. Muslims believe that the Quran was first revealed to Prophet Muhammad during the month of Ramadan. </p>
<p>Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and lasts either 29 or 30 days. During Ramadan, Muslims observe a fast from sunrise to sunset each day, so they wake up early to share food before the sun appears and end it in later in the evening.</p>
<p>In the 12-month Gregorian calendar used in much of the world, the timing of Ramadan can vary from year to year. The dates depend on when the new crescent moon is visible. </p>
<p>The fasting, as scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mohammad-hassan-khalil-274989">Mohammad Hassan Khalil</a> explains, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-ramadan-is-called-ramadan-6-questions-answered-77291">is a way for Muslims to be conscious of God</a>. It is also meant to help them understand what it is like to be poor.</p>
<p>The fasting ends with the celebration of Eid al-Fitr. Muslim communities often organize large feasts for breaking the fast that are known as “Iftaar” (literally, “breakfast”) at which people from all religions are welcomed. I’ve often attended Iftaar feasts in India. </p>
<p>On Eid, Muslims gather in the mosque for prayers, which are followed by celebrations. In many South Asian countries, sewain are distributed around to friends and neighbors. But customs can vary, and Muslims from different countries and cultures <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-eid-2017-a-peek-into-the-lives-of-puerto-rican-muslims-78798">will bring their unique food and traditions</a> to the celebrations of this holy day.</p>
<p><em>This article was reviewed for accuracy by <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ken-chitwood-160245">Ken Chitwood</a>, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Cultures & Societies at Freie Universität Berlin. He is also a journalist-fellow at the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture.</em></p>
<p><strong>Fact:</strong> The first Muslim to ever recite the call to prayer was Bilal Ibn Rabah, son of an enslaved Abyssinian woman, in the city of Medina in the seventh century. At the time, early Muslims were <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_25461">debating the best way to audibly announce</a> the time for prayer so people would know when to gather at the mosque. <em>– From an <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-richard-dawkins-doesnt-get-about-the-muslim-call-to-prayer-100576">article</a> written by <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/rose-s-aslan-505827">Rose Aslan</a>, Assistant Professor of Religion, California Lutheran University.</em></p>
<p><strong>Do now:</strong> Listen to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3paZoyU-1aE">these sounds of the call to prayer</a>, and ask yourself how they make you feel. </p>
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<p><strong>In the next issue: <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-understanding-islam-who-is-an-american-muslim-155024">Who is an American Muslim</a>?</strong></p>
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<p><em>You can read all six articles in this <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/understanding-islam-108919">Understanding Islam series on TheConversation.com</a>, or we can deliver them straight to your inbox if you <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/understanding-islam-79">sign up for our email newsletter course</a>.</em></p>
<p></p><hr><p></p>
<h2>Articles from The Conversation in this edition:</h2>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/explaining-the-muslim-pilgrimage-of-hajj-83284">Explaining the Muslim pilgrimage of hajj</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-significance-of-friday-prayers-in-islam-113702">What is the significance of Friday prayers in Islam?</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-ramadan-is-called-ramadan-6-questions-answered-77291">Why Ramadan is Ramadan: 6 questions answered</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/on-eid-2017-a-peek-into-the-lives-of-puerto-rican-muslims-78798">On Eid 2017, a peek into the lives of Puerto Rican Muslims</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Further Reading and Resources:</h2>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.ispu.org/journalists/">Institute of Social Policy and Understanding</a>: ISPU conducts research to help journalists and others better understand the lives of American Muslims.</p></li>
<li><p>“<a href="https://www.sunypress.edu/p-1542-islam.aspx">Islam: An Introduction</a>,” by Annemarie Schimmel: A comprehensive introduction to Islam by an influential Islamic scholar who was a professor at Harvard University from 1967 to 1992.</p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155023/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Day 2 of our Understanding Islam series. There are five pillars – or basic tenets – of Islamic faith. Each of these pillars is an important part of being Muslim.Kalpana Jain, Senior Religion + Ethics Editor/ Director of the Global Religion Journalism InitiativeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1600432021-05-11T14:39:51Z2021-05-11T14:39:51ZPilgrimage in a pandemic: lessons from Mecca on containing COVID-19<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398665/original/file-20210504-22-1kzedqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muslim worshippers perform the evening Tarawih prayer during the fasting month of Ramadan around the Kaaba in the Grand Mosque complex in the holy city of Mecca, on April 13, 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a Muslim, at least once a year I go on pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, located in Saudi Arabia. Muslims perform the short “Umrah” pilgrimage at any time of the year, and there could be <a href="https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/592545">over</a> 19 million pilgrims each year. I have also been to Mecca a couple of times for “Hajj” – the annual major pilgrimage. Held once a year, this is a mass gathering of <a href="https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/592545">over</a> 2.5 million Muslims. </p>
<p>Both the Umrah and Hajj pilgrimages weren’t possible for most of 2020 <a href="https://theconversation.com/hajj-cancellation-due-to-coronavirus-is-not-the-first-time-plague-has-disrupted-this-muslim-pilgrimage-135900">due to</a> the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>However, Saudi Arabia as a whole has <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/">fared well</a> in handling the pandemic. It’s had low mortality rates and minimal social <a href="https://insights.omnia-health.com/hospital-management/prompt-action-defines-saudi-arabias-success-story-emerging-covid-19">and</a> economic disruption. There’s been widespread testing and vaccine access. This allowed it to open up for pilgrims. </p>
<p>I had avoided travel to minimise unnecessary exposure to the new coronavirus, SARS-COV-2. But <a href="https://www.haramainsharifain.com/2021/04/how-can-foreign-pilgrims-perform-umrah.html">information</a> on stringent rules to ensure the safety of pilgrims in Mecca encouraged me to go. </p>
<p>As a pathologist who has been at the forefront of tracing the spread of the new coronavirus in Kenya, I was impressed by what I experienced in Saudi Arabia. </p>
<p>I believe there are valuable lessons here for other countries where mass religious gatherings <a href="http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20120119-travelwise-10-sites-of-religious-pilgrimage">take place</a>. The strategies could also be emulated by specific industries – such as hospitality and tourism, sports and entertainment. These also handle large numbers of people and need to balance public health and the protection of people’s livelihood.</p>
<h2>Test and quarantine</h2>
<p>For starters, the Saudi authorities required foreign pilgrims to have a negative PCR test result. These had to be taken within 48 hours before arrival in Saudi Arabia. </p>
<p>Upon arrival, all pilgrims either had to do a mandatory quarantine at a government approved hotel for six days, or take a PCR test after 48 hours of quarantine and, if it was negative, could leave the hotel. Travellers from countries categorised as <a href="https://www.who.int/teams/health-product-and-policy-standards/access-to-assistive-technology-medical-devices/medical-devices/policies/high-risk-countries">“high-risk”</a> were required to do a mandatory seven day quarantine, but also needed to have a negative PCR test upon completion.</p>
<p>In addition, all pilgrims who wanted a permit to enter Haram – the Grand Mosque of Mecca – needed to have a COVID-19 vaccination certificate. </p>
<p>It’s important to use all these measures as they add layers of protection and prevent situations from becoming super-spreader events. A negative PCR test alone may not be enough. There’s always the risk of a <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/covid-tests-rt-pcr-coronavirus-negative-result-7297329/">false negative</a> for technical reasons or due to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-55092387">fraud</a>. There have been <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/covid-19-kenya-added-to-uk-red-list-travel-ban-3346510">reports of</a> large numbers of travellers testing positive at their destination points after testing negative at departure.</p>
<h2>Social distancing</h2>
<p>Before COVID-19, there would be congestion and crowding. This time the flow of people within the Grand Mosque was well organised. A limited number of worshippers were allowed in at a time and there was clear demarcation to ensure physical distancing. Police and mosque orderlies monitored and directed the pilgrims.</p>
<p>Face masks – <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/masks-protect-you-and-me.html">which</a> provide a barrier and keep the new coronavirus from spreading – were mandatory. <a href="https://www.arabnews.com/node/1682441/saudi-arabia">Harsh penalties</a> were imposed on anyone not wearing a mask or trying to enter the Haram without a valid permit. <a href="https://www.moh.gov.sa/en/Ministry/MediaCenter/News/Pages/News-2020-11-08-007.aspx">Daily text messages</a> reminded us about the penalties and public health measures.</p>
<p>The markedly restricted number of pilgrims – to 50,000 a day from a huge capacity of hundreds of thousands – made it easier to manage people and enforce measures. </p>
<p>In addition, the iftar meal – taken at the break of fasting – was provided in neatly sealed packages. Indicated by a label, these were prepared under stringent hygiene conditions eliminating the risk of the SARS-CoV-2 transmission from handling. In the past pilgrims would eat these meals together, sometimes from communal plates. This is a high risk situation for the virus transmission. </p>
<p>Also, unlike before when people would crowd to collect <a href="https://www.arabnews.com/node/1712901/saudi-arabia">ZamZam holy water</a> from watering points, it was dispensed by mobile porters. They poured water from portable backpack tanks and also dished out sealed bottled water. </p>
<h2>Mobile apps</h2>
<p>An innovative intervention was the use of mobile apps to record, track and monitor all COVID-19 related personal records. These included test results and vaccination status. The apps were also used to apply for access to move around in public places. We were told which apps to download by our Umrah travel agent. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sa.gov.nic.tawakkalna&hl=en&gl=US">Tawakkalna app</a> is being used across the country for contact tracing. It’s the most important app, needed to access every place you go, for instance every shop, restaurant, hotel and vehicle. This app required a record of PCR results and vaccination to enable entry.</p>
<p>Those with a positive PCR were barred from moving around. <a href="https://www.arabnews.com/node/1804601/saudi-arabia">The app</a> has a constant location tracker and warns if someone is out of their allowed zone.</p>
<p>If groups wanted to gather for social events they would use the Tawakkalna app to apply for a gathering permit. The app would then provide contact tracing in the case of any positive case emerging after the event.</p>
<p>For pilgrims wanting access to the Haram, there is an app called <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sejel.eatamrna&hl=en&gl=US">Eatmarna</a>. Created by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah (the government’s ministry dedicated to pilgrim matters) the Eatmarna app allows pilgrims to book a specific time-slot for access to the Grand Mosque, meaning numbers are capped. The app is also linked to the Tawakkalna app <a href="https://www.haj.gov.sa/en/InternalPages/Details/10234">which means</a> access is granted based on COVID-19 status.</p>
<p>As a foreign pilgrim, I was issued with a bar-coded wrist band that could be scanned to confirm my status in case I couldn’t display my Tawakkalna or Eatmarna status. </p>
<p><a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/coronavirus/2020/06/28/Saudi-Arabia-s-coronavirus-social-distancing-app-Tabaud-All-you-need-to-know">Tabaud</a> was another app that was used. It’s a social-distancing app which, using bluetooth, can check on the Tawakkalna app of people around you. It essentially warns of people nearby who have tested positive.</p>
<p>As a pathologist, I see these apps as crucial in preventing the spread of the new coronavirus. They limit crowding and also allow for the movement of those who are safe while restricting those who are unsafe. </p>
<p>Apps that track people’s movements – and that store their medical and personal data – do raise <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/inaccurate-and-insecure-why-contact-tracing-apps-could-be-a-disaster/">privacy concerns</a>, particularly if the data falls into the wrong hands or is misused. </p>
<p>However I also feel that their use is a price that we need to pay in these unprecedented times, and steps <a href="https://www.ictworks.org/protect-digital-privacy-security-covid-19-response/">can be taken</a> to protect the data. </p>
<h2>Avoiding superspreader events</h2>
<p>In the past, Mecca was a convergence point for millions of pilgrims and has always been a flashpoint for the spread of various contagious diseases, including <a href="http://www.ph.ucla.edu/EPI/snow/pandemic1826-37.html">cholera</a>.</p>
<p>Strict and decisive steps taken for mass gatherings can prevent them from becoming superspreader hotspots, as has happened in <a href="https://qz.com/india/2006872/lancet-editorial-blames-modi-for-mismanaging-indias-covid-crisis/">India</a> and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jtm/article/27/3/taaa044/5817958">Iran</a>.</p>
<p>Saudi Arabia’s handling of the pilgrimage provides many lessons worth emulating by sectors and events that bring together large numbers of people, including sports, religion, entertainment and hospitality industries. </p>
<p>People wishing to use these facilities would have to accept that to enjoy these privileges they would need to be checked and monitored – for the welfare of everyone. </p>
<p>Of particular interest is the use of mobile phone technology which could be a very potent tool in combating the pandemic in all countries, including <a href="https://www.geopoll.com/blog/mobile-phone-penetration-africa/">those in Africa</a>, where internet and mobile phone penetration is high.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160043/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ahmed Kalebi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Entertainment, sports and tourism industries can learn valuable lessons from how Saudi Arabia managed the annual pilgrimage during a pandemic.Ahmed Kalebi, Independent Consultant Pathologist & Hon. Lecturer, Department of Human Pathology, University of NairobiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1601492021-05-07T12:44:22Z2021-05-07T12:44:22ZLag BaOmer pilgrimage brings Orthodox Jews closer to eternity – I experienced this spiritual bonding in years before the tragedy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399048/original/file-20210505-15-1fgken9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C5%2C3453%2C2305&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A condolence message and candles for the victims of a stampede during a Jewish ultra-Orthodox mass pilgrimage to Mount Meron, projected on a wall of Jerusalem's Old City.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/may-2021-israel-jerusalem-a-condolence-message-and-candles-news-photo/1232635524?adppopup=true">Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The annual Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Mount Meron in Israel attracts as many as half a million visitors every year. Because of COVID-19, this year’s event was less crowded, but even so, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/110-years-ago-100-people-fell-from-a-balcony-at-mt-meron-11-were-killed">over 100,000 people</a> were packed into a space with a capacity for perhaps 15,000. This <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/dozens-killed-in-stampede-at-israeli-religious-festival-11619748818">overcrowding reportedly</a> contributed to the recent tragedy, in which at least 45 people, mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews known as “Haredim” in Hebrew, died in a stampede. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1387912885821755399"}"></div></p>
<p>This is by far the largest pilgrimage of Jews to what is believed to be the gravesite of the second-century Talmudic sage <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520221123/defenders-of-the-faith">Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai</a>.</p>
<p>I have participated twice in the pilgrimage – once in 1994 as a newly observant Jew seeking religious meaning, and again in 2001 as a <a href="https://jewish.cofc.edu/documents/jewish-studies-faculty-and-staff-bios/joshua-shanes,-associate-director.php">scholar of Jewish history</a>. What fascinates me about this pilgrimage is the way it weaves together Jewish mysticism, folk practices and modern-day nationalism. </p>
<h2>Early history</h2>
<p>The Jewish practice of worshipping at the graves of holy men is at least a thousand years old. Many Jews – particularly those whose ancestry comes from the Arab world, called “Mizrahim” or “Sephardim” – <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/640490">believe that these saints can act as their advocates</a> in the “celestial court.” They pray at their gravesites for everything from children to good health to a livelihood. </p>
<p>The pilgrimage to Meron, in the hills of the Galilee near Safed in the northern part of Israel, <a href="https://seforimblog.com/2011/05/printing-mistake-and-mysterious-origins/">initially focused on the graves of other holy figures</a> said to be buried there, particularly the early rabbinic sages Hillel and Shamai, whose debates on Jewish law helped lay the foundation for rabbinic Judaism 2,000 years ago. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of the <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Jews-of-Spain/Jane-S-Gerber/9780029115749">Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492</a>, Safed grew into an important center of Jewish mysticism, <a href="https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/kabbalah-a-very-short-introduction-9780195327052?cc=us&lang=en&">known in Hebrew as Kabbalah</a>. The most important and influential of these mystics was the 16th-century scholar Isaac Luria, <a href="https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501726033-011">whose innovative teachings</a> transformed Judaism and Jewish history. Under his influence, the focus of the Meron pilgrimage shifted to Shimon, whose burial place was among the many such graves of ancient rabbis that Luria <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=1174">“identified” with supernatural guidance</a>. </p>
<p>Shimon is by tradition credited with the composition of the Zohar, <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=6634">the core text of all subsequent Jewish mysticism</a>, though scholars have determined it was actually composed in 13th-century Spain. </p>
<p>Sixteenth-century mystics, and the Jews who follow in their footsteps, are thus particularly interested in connecting to him. They are especially interested in doing so on the anniversary of his death, when the Zohar states he revealed the deepest secrets about God, and pilgrims expect to experience a taste of that revelation. Since at least the <a href="https://seforimblog.com/2011/05/printing-mistake-and-mysterious-origins/?fbclid=IwAR2jQqJFvOdpZl_JuiIlZia5MJR1gyvHrFqiiRkiYmgJkBMMwRKEzP4sjy8">18th century</a>, that date has been accepted as Lag BaOmer. </p>
<h2>The pilgrimage</h2>
<p>The Hebrew name of the holiday Lag BaOmer literally reflects its date in the Jewish calendar, the 33rd day of the Omer, the ritual counting of 50 days from the holiday of Passover, commemorating the exodus from Egypt, to Shavuot, commemorating God’s revelation and giving of the <a href="https://www.ou.org/judaism-101/glossary/torah/">Torah</a>, the Jewish holy canon.</p>
<p>These seven weeks are traditionally days of mourning commemorating the death of 24,000 students of the <a href="https://www.ou.org/holidays/expressions_of_mourning_in_sefirat_haomer/">great sage Rabbi Akiva</a> in the second century by plague, seen as a punishment by God. Only five people survived, including Shimon. Haircuts, music, weddings and all celebrations are prohibited during that seven-week period. </p>
<p>On Lag BaOmer, the restrictions are lifted in accordance with the tradition that on this day the plague ended. <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520221123/defenders-of-the-faith">Mystical tradition credits this to Shimon’s death</a>, which was understood as having the power to eradicate the decree of the plague. According to that tradition, Shimon instructed that the day of passing be celebrated rather than mourned, and thus was born the celebration we know today.</p>
<h2>Rituals and prayers</h2>
<p>In the 20th century, even before the founding of Israel, the Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Meron grew into a mass event.</p>
<p>Pilgrims light bonfires symbolizing the light of Torah revealed by Shimon, or perhaps the literal fires that the Zohar states surrounded him at the moment of his death. In fact, they <a href="https://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/digitallibrary/gallery/yearly_cycle/lag_baomer/Pages/lag-baomer.aspx">are lit not only at Meron</a>, but throughout Israel and the world, although for some secular Zionists it evokes not Shimon but instead the <a href="https://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/digitallibrary/gallery/yearly_cycle/lag_baomer/Pages/lag-baomer.aspx">“Bar Kochba” military rebellion against Rome</a> that occurred around the same time. </p>
<p>Its <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/640490?seq=1">earliest pilgrims were mostly Moroccan Jews</a> who arrived in Israel intent on continuing their tradition of graveside visits to saints, convinced of the possibility of magical remedies and blessings through their holy intervention.</p>
<p>Many pilgrims celebrate the kabbalistic custom of giving a boy his first haircut, leaving behind the sidelocks, at 3 years of age. In recent years, ultra-Orthodox Jews of European ancestry – especially Hasidim – have increasingly dominated the site, although all sectors of Jewish society are represented there. </p>
<p>The pilgrimage is one of the only truly widespread expressions of folk religion in Judaism today. As anthropologist <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0228.xml">Edith Turner</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501726033-011">wrote in her classic essay on Meron</a>, pilgrims come to Meron with deep faith in its power to bring blessings to them. “This is a popular celebration, with a long history that shimmers through the events at various points.”</p>
<p>The celebration is an intense, highly packed event that offers participants an ecstatic experience of communing with God in a collective of tens, even hundreds of thousands, of fellow Jews. </p>
<p>I can certainly attest to this effect. In 1994, at the start of my journey into Orthodox Judaism, I joined the Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Meron. At that time, the festival hosted many Moroccan Jews, who camped outside the main grounds. Several among them had live animals ready to be slaughtered and eaten to celebrate their sons’ first haircuts. The Ashkenazic Hasidic Jews – <a href="https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Hasidism">sects of Jews from Eastern Europe</a> deeply influenced by Jewish mysticism and devoted to their leaders – dominated the inner spaces of the compound. </p>
<p>Everywhere I walked, people offered me free drinks, convinced of the promise that it would bring blessings to their family. Meanwhile, gender-segregated crowds <a href="https://twitter.com/kann_news/status/1387837918132195330">sang and danced in unison</a> for hours into the night, creating a palpable sense of euphoria and connection to a collective eternity. Some of us pushed inside to approach the gravesite and prayed for blessings of success, while others pushed to reach closer to the bonfires. </p>
<p>There were several fires, each representing a different Jewish community, although by custom the main fire is lit by the head of the “Boyan” Hasidim, so called because their leaders originally lived in the city of Boyan in Ukraine. It was in the <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/what-is-toldot-aharon-hassidic-sect-whose-members-were-killed-at-meron-666808">area of a different Hasidic group, known as Toldos Aharon</a>, that the tragedy on April 30, 2021, occurred. This group <a href="https://twitter.com/moshe_nayes/status/1387889426412544014">can be seen dancing</a> this year, just before the tragedy. </p>
<p>By the time I returned in 2001, I had become a full-fledged Hasid myself and was living in Betar Illit, a massive Haredi settlement south of Jerusalem. I recall far fewer Moroccan families camping in tents. But the number of Haredim, joined by Sephardim, modern Orthodox and even secular pilgrims seemed to have exploded, serving to enhance that sense of eternal community, of Jewish connection across time and space. </p>
<p>I have long since left that Hasidic world, for a variety of reasons. But I do not for a moment discount the very real experience of divinity and eternity enjoyed by Meron pilgrims, and their deep need to return to it each year. </p>
<h2>Political overtones</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ultra-Orthodox Jews attend a funeral at Segula cemetery in Petah Tikva on April 30, 2021, for one of the victims of the Meron stampede." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ultra-Orthodox Jews attend a funeral at Segula cemetery in Petah Tikva on April 30, 2021, for one of the victims of the Meron stampede.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ultra-orthodox-jews-attend-the-funeral-of-one-of-the-news-photo/1232607694?adppopup=true">Gil Cohen Magen GIL /AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The events leading up to the deadly stampede need to be viewed in context of Haredi society in Israel – <a href="https://en.idi.org.il/haredi/2020/?chapter=34272">today about 12% of the population, but growing rapidly</a> – and the power wielded by its leaders. Israel’s first prime minister, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-meron-calamity-haredim-question-the-price-of-their-own-autonomy/">David Ben Gurion, granted Haredim extensive autonomy</a> in their education system, military deferments, welfare funding and more. Israel’s parliamentary system, which offers small political parties disproportionate power, has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-meron-calamity-haredim-question-the-price-of-their-own-autonomy/">carefully protected and expanded that autonomy</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, Haredi leaders have successfully fought enforcement of government oversight and safety regulations, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/17/world/middleeast/israel-orthodox-jews-haredim.html">from COVID-19 restrictions</a> to the Meron festival. Aryeh Deri, the interior minister and leader of the Sephardic Shas party, said on the eve of Lag BaOmer: “This is a holy day, and the largest gathering of Jews [each year].” Bad things, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-meron-calamity-haredim-question-the-price-of-their-own-autonomy/">he promised</a>, don’t happen to Jews on religious pilgrimage: “One should trust in Rabbi Shimon in times of distress.” </p>
<p>Similar sentiments were <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-s-leading-rabbi-thinks-not-studying-torah-is-more-dangerous-than-coronavirus-1.8677335">voiced by Haredi leaders</a> when they prematurely opened their schools last year, promising that Torah study would hold the plague at bay. <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-meron-calamity-haredim-question-the-price-of-their-own-autonomy/">Countless officials</a> had warned that Meron was a disaster waiting to happen.</p>
<p>One hopes that this tragedy will lead Haredim and other Israelis to accept government oversight and limits at the site. </p>
<p>One should not for a moment, however, discount the vital need of members of this community to bond with one another and God at this place, any more than we would discount the legitimacy of other religious and secular communities finding it elsewhere. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160149/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Shanes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Lag BaOmer pilgrimage, in which 45 people died recently, takes place each year to what is believed to be the gravesite of the second-century Talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.Joshua Shanes, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, College of CharlestonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1530692021-03-24T12:27:12Z2021-03-24T12:27:12ZThe US has never had much of a pilgrimage tradition – perhaps now is the opportunity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391235/original/file-20210323-2308-1u6z90t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4516%2C3013&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sites of pilgrimages are few and far between in the U.S.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/manorville-n-y-people-seen-walking-the-grounds-and-praying-news-photo/1214719829?adppopup=true">Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday RM via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One feature of the pandemic has been the curtailment of a practice that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/102.1.86">for millennia has provided an outlet for healing</a> in times of crisis: pilgrimage.</p>
<p>From <a href="https://theconversation.com/hajj-cancellation-due-to-coronavirus-is-not-the-first-time-plague-has-disrupted-this-muslim-pilgrimage-135900">restrictions on the Hajj</a> for Muslims to the <a href="https://www.catholicnews.com/july-16-virtual-pilgrimage-to-lourdes-to-affirm-prayer-against-covid-19/">Catholic pilgrimage to Lourdes going virtual</a>, people of faith have been unable to embark on journeys that would in other times provide solace and community.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://suny.oneonta.edu/geography-environmental-sustainability/faculty-staff">scholar of religion and geography</a> who has <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/659312/pilgrimage-pathways-for-the-united-states-by-james-mills/9781623175498">written about the role of pilgrimage</a>, I know the U.S. has never had a strong tradition of pilgrimage. But I believe that could change and give Americans new ways to heal in the post-pandemic era.</p>
<h2>The progress of pilgrimages</h2>
<p>Pilgrims have embarked on journeys in search of healing for at <a href="https://www2.nau.edu/%7Egaud/bio301/content/gbktp.htm">least 10,000 years</a> and in virtually all religious traditions including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. In earlier times, the healing pilgrims sought was often to be <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/holy-shrines-and-miracle-healers">cured of disease or some physical ailment</a>. Some still do. Crutches that cover the walls of pilgrimage destinations such as the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/a-little-church-in-new-mexico-with-some-big-healing-power/2014/04/10/6989ca34-b9bf-11e3-9a05-c739f29ccb08_story.html">Chimayo chapel in New Mexico</a> attest to those who hobbled to these sites and then, it is said, walked away cured.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A tourist takes a photo of the Catholic chapel El Santuario de Chimayo in Chimayo, New Mexico." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391237/original/file-20210323-14-yk4pz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391237/original/file-20210323-14-yk4pz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391237/original/file-20210323-14-yk4pz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391237/original/file-20210323-14-yk4pz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391237/original/file-20210323-14-yk4pz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391237/original/file-20210323-14-yk4pz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391237/original/file-20210323-14-yk4pz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Visitor in front of El Santuario de Chimayo in Chimayo, New Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/visitor-takes-a-photograph-in-front-of-el-santuario-de-news-photo/534288868?adppopup=true">Robert Alexander/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Nowadays the healing most pilgrims seek is more psychological and spiritual in nature. Pilgrims often undertake their journeys to grieve and heal after the death of loved ones or <a href="https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/pilgrimage-and-healing">after experiencing other traumas in their own lives</a>.</p>
<p>Pilgrimage is <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9090249">common and even increasing</a> in most parts of the world. The Camino de Santiago in Spain has seen an <a href="https://vivecamino.com/en/the-evolution-of-the-camino-de-santiago-in-numbers-no-502/">extraordinary increase</a> in the number of pilgrims in the past 30 years, and scores of new pilgrimage routes have <a href="https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/new-project-creates-pilgrimage-routes-for-every-church-of-england-cathedral">recently opened in the U.K.</a></p>
<h2>A Protestant objection</h2>
<p>The U.S., however, has few destinations and even fewer designated routes for pilgrims to use. The reasons for this are varied, but historically the majority of U.S. citizens and almost all those in power <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.59">identified as Protestants</a>. Even today, <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/">close to half of all Americans</a> identify as Protestant.</p>
<p>Protestantism has had less of a tradition of church-sanctioned pilgrimage than other religions. In fact, Protestantism emerged in the 1500s in no small part as a reaction to the <a href="https://www.cambriansd.org/cms/lib07/CA01902282/Centricity/Domain/316/Corruption%20in%20Medieval%20Church0001.pdf">licentious behavior of some pilgrims and priests</a>, the selling of indulgences to enrich the church or various members of the clergy, and the corruption that was associated with many pilgrimages of the time.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/history-martin-luther-religious-revolution">Martin Luther</a>, the founder of Protestantism, said all pilgrimages should be stopped because they <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/projects/pilgrimage/content/reform.html#:%7E:text=The%20leading%20Reformer%20Martin%20Luther,no%20obedience%20attaches%20to%20them.">only gave people opportunities to sin</a>. He wrote that there is no biblical basis for the practice.</p>
<p>Most Protestants over the past few centuries followed Luther’s lead and continued to avoid or denounce pilgrimage. Protestants denied the significance of saints, so they didn’t go on pilgrimages to shrines commemorating them. They focused more on doctrine and have generally been wary of embodied rituals, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-christianity-put-away-its-dancing-shoes-only-to-find-them-again-centuries-later-156369">such as dancing</a> or pilgrimages.</p>
<p>A secondary reason that the U.S. never developed a pilgrimage tradition is that religious pilgrims tend to be attracted to places where key figures in their faith – such as Jesus, Muhammad, the Buddha, or various saints – lived out their lives. </p>
<p>Jerusalem, as well as Mecca in Saudi Arabia, India’s Bodh Gaya and other places associated with the birth of religions or major moments in their development, are all in Asia. As a result, Americans seeking such pilgrimage have felt the need to travel overseas, which limits who can go and how often pilgrimages can be undertaken. </p>
<p>There are some pilgrimage sites in the U.S. Mormons have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-7383(92)90110-B">a number of American destinations</a> – such as the Hill Cumorah in Palmyra, New York, and Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah – because the U.S. is where the religion started and grew. Catholics have U.S. pilgrimage destinations as well, <a href="https://www.holyhill.com/">such as the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians, at Holy Hill in Wisconsin</a>. These places are typically associated with miraculous events or dedicated to saints such as the Virgin Mary.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Pathways to healing</h2>
<p>Times are changing, however. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/sunday-review/the-new-allure-of-sacred-pilgrimages.html">Evidence suggests</a> that more and more Americans would like to go on a pilgrimage or have more ways to engage in spiritual tourism. This growing desire to go on a spiritual journey provides a great opportunity to meet the demand by creating domestic pilgrimages not only for personal healing, but also to construct walking pathways that could, I believe, help heal entire communities or even the country.</p>
<p>Imagine a network of local pilgrimages that focuses on the route rather than any singular destination. These paths could interconnect to form regional networks. </p>
<p>Such pathways could be much more than simple thoroughfares. They could be designed to provide rich spiritual experiences for people of all faiths and those of no formal affiliation. Nondenominational meditation spots, gardens and <a href="https://feminismandreligion.com/2013/04/27/liminal-time-and-space-by-deanne-quarrie/">liminal components</a> such as gateways, bridges and shorelines could all be incorporated.</p>
<p>These routes could be open to all and provide an opportunity to encourage interfaith and intergroup communication. Pilgrims might choose to walk with others of different backgrounds or there might be side trips that bring pilgrims to a variety of denominational destinations.</p>
<p>U.S. cities are deeply segregated by class, ethnicity and race. Urban pilgrimages could help break down barriers by providing opportunities for residents to experience neighborhoods other than their own.</p>
<p>This isn’t just a pipe dream. In the U.K. there is an organization dedicated to <a href="https://britishpilgrimage.org/the-bpt/">renewing the idea of pilgrimage</a> “as a form of cultural heritage that promotes holistic well being.” There is no reason such a movement cannot develop in the U.S. too.</p>
<p>In fact, the Adirondack to Algonquin (A2A) Initiative is already creating a 400-mile wildlife corridor that the planners hope will double <a href="http://www.a2acollaborative.org/a2a-trail.html">as a pilgrimage route for humans</a>.</p>
<p>After the hardships caused by the pandemic, 2021 and beyond could be a time for healing – both of oneself and the wider community. Pursuing development of a network of pilgrimage pathways across the U.S. would, I believe, be a positive and creative way for Americans to work toward that goal.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153069/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Mills does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The pandemic has curtailed religious tourism for many. As the US opens up, perhaps Americans can find solace and healing in the age-old tradition of pilgrimage.James Mills, Associate Professor of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, State University of New York at OneontaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1501592020-12-28T21:42:24Z2020-12-28T21:42:24ZHit the road, Jack: 5 epic literary road trips that are not by Kerouac<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374145/original/file-20201210-17-e4luii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C46%2C5129%2C3399&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/uploads/14114186770621924b36f/3a8bd6d2?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MXwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHw%3D&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2700&q=80">Unsplash/Juan Di Nella</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Summer is the time for holidays and travel. But as we weakly wave goodbye (we hope) to the horrors of 2020, international travel is off the table and even domestic travel is <a href="https://www.interstatequarantine.org.au/state-and-territory-border-closures/">still restricted</a>. </p>
<p>A book is still your most faithful companion on summer journeys, even if that trip is limited to the journey between the kitchen and a sun lounge in the backyard. </p>
<p>Curated here is a mix tape of great literary road trips. There is one oldie but goodie, some 21st-century hits and shout-outs to the authors who mapped the way. Buckle up — or curl up — and enjoy.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-alice-pung-how-reading-changed-my-life-147442">Friday essay: Alice Pung — how reading changed my life</a>
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<h2>1. Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (c. 1400)</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374125/original/file-20201210-19-wpgypx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Book cover: The Canterbury Tales" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374125/original/file-20201210-19-wpgypx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374125/original/file-20201210-19-wpgypx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374125/original/file-20201210-19-wpgypx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374125/original/file-20201210-19-wpgypx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374125/original/file-20201210-19-wpgypx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374125/original/file-20201210-19-wpgypx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374125/original/file-20201210-19-wpgypx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1261208589l/2696.jpg">Goodreads</a></span>
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<p>Our journey begins with <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2696.The_Canterbury_Tales">The Canterbury Tales</a>, one of literature’s earliest road trip narratives, although Chaucer’s work takes its lead from <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51799.The_Decameron">Giovanni Bocaccio’s Decameron</a> (c. 1353). </p>
<p>A series of stories told by a group of travellers, in Chaucer’s Middle English, takes readers on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas à Becket in Canterbury. Indeed, the pilgrimage can be seen as the earliest form of today’s holiday (a “<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/holiday">holy day</a>”), in which the faithful would journey for days or even weeks to visit a holy site. The physical demands of the travel itself contributed to the pilgrim’s spiritual growth. </p>
<p>Each pilgrim of The Canterbury Tales represents a different class or social position — the knight, the priest, the merchant, and so on. Additionally, each story not only represents a particular and symbolic genre — the low humour of the miller’s fabliaux, or the knight’s idealisation of the courtly love poem — but when taken together signify the interactions between people and experiences of the period. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chaucers-great-poem-troilus-and-criseyde-perfect-reading-while-under-siege-from-a-virus-142662">Chaucer’s great poem Troilus and Criseyde: perfect reading while under siege from a virus</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>If you enjoy The Canterbury Tales, you might also like Homer’s epic poem <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1381.The_Odyssey">The Odyssey</a> (8th C BCE) — a heroic adventure on the high seas. Likewise: Jules Verne’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33507.Twenty_Thousand_Leagues_Under_the_Sea?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=h3fzmEAVMe&rank=3">Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea</a> and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54479.Around_the_World_in_Eighty_Days?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=h3fzmEAVMe&rank=4">Around the World in Eighty Days</a> (both first published in English in 1872), or Jonathan Swift’s satirical masterpiece, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7733.Gulliver_s_Travels?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=imkyfzZafI&rank=1">Gulliver’s Travels</a> (1726).</p>
<h2>2. Cheryl Strayed, Wild (2012)</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374127/original/file-20201210-19-rj0ck9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Book cover: Wild (a hiking boot)" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374127/original/file-20201210-19-rj0ck9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374127/original/file-20201210-19-rj0ck9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374127/original/file-20201210-19-rj0ck9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374127/original/file-20201210-19-rj0ck9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374127/original/file-20201210-19-rj0ck9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374127/original/file-20201210-19-rj0ck9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374127/original/file-20201210-19-rj0ck9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1453189881l/12262741._SY475_.jpg">Goodreads</a></span>
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<p>Perhaps best known for the image of Reese Witherspoon tossing her hiking boots into a canyon in the 2014 film adaptation, Cheryl Strayed’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12262741-wild?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=ofk2TrGaTA&rank=1">memoir</a> of her solo hike along the Pacific Crest Trail is an epic pilgrimage in its own right. </p>
<p>Just as the archetypes of The Canterbury Tales undertake both a physical and a spiritual journey, so too Strayed commits to the trail as a trip of transformation and discovery: “a world I thought would both make me into the woman I knew I could become and turn me back into the girl I’d once been. A world that measured two feet wide and 2,663 miles long”. </p>
<p>Wild constitutes a modern, even feminist, reimagining of the American frontier narrative — a lone journey into the “wild west”, stripped of the markers of civilisation to truly find a self-made paradise. The book echoes and subverts the classic road trip novel, Jack Kerouac’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/70401.On_the_Road?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=tR92ecrppd&rank=1">On the Road</a> (1957) — a compulsory addition to any literary road trip list. It also hearkens back to Mark Twain’s boyhood novel, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2956.The_Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=PnG1mYJGSq&rank=1">The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</a> (1885), or even Vladimir Nabokov’s twisted trip in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7604.Lolita?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=r6Y4bhIa4Q&rank=1">Lolita</a> (1955).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mythbusting-ancient-rome-did-all-roads-actually-lead-there-81746">Mythbusting Ancient Rome -- did all roads actually lead there?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. John Green’s Paper Towns (2008)</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374132/original/file-20201210-16-fvgjmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Book cover: paper towns (poster pin in map)" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374132/original/file-20201210-16-fvgjmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374132/original/file-20201210-16-fvgjmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374132/original/file-20201210-16-fvgjmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374132/original/file-20201210-16-fvgjmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374132/original/file-20201210-16-fvgjmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374132/original/file-20201210-16-fvgjmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374132/original/file-20201210-16-fvgjmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6442769-paper-towns?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=aF0YE7GHjk&rank=1">Goodreads</a></span>
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<p>That the road trip is frequently used as a symbolic journey of understanding the self makes it ripe for the contemporary <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bildungsroman">bildungsroman</a> form — a novel of development — in the Young Adult genre. Author John Green has plumbed this trope a number of times, perhaps most successfully in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6442769-paper-towns?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=aF0YE7GHjk&rank=1">Paper Towns</a>. The acclaimed <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7664334-amy-roger-s-epic-detour?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=vhZ4qn3Rjv&rank=1">Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour</a> by Morgan Matson (2010), or the more recent <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40864798-i-wanna-be-where-you-are?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=evWo6a49jG&rank=1">I Wanna Be Where You Are</a> by Kristina Forest (2019) both also fall within this category. </p>
<p>Poised on the precarious cusp of adulthood and searching for their adventurous friend Margot, the teenaged protagonists of Paper Towns set off on a road trip through the night, determined to “right a lot of wrongs … wrong some rights … (and) radically reshape the world”. It is thus a moral journey, an effort to imprint the emerging self on a world not yet acknowledging its presence. The travellers want to make decisions about their lives, rather than be swept down a predetermined road. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-kids-are-alright-young-adult-post-disaster-novels-can-teach-us-about-trauma-and-survival-140849">The kids are alright: young adult post-disaster novels can teach us about trauma and survival</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Tara June Winch’s Swallow the Air (2006)</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374137/original/file-20201210-17-1j1z9wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Book cover: Swallow the Air" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374137/original/file-20201210-17-1j1z9wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374137/original/file-20201210-17-1j1z9wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374137/original/file-20201210-17-1j1z9wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374137/original/file-20201210-17-1j1z9wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374137/original/file-20201210-17-1j1z9wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374137/original/file-20201210-17-1j1z9wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374137/original/file-20201210-17-1j1z9wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27882034-swallow-the-air?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=q1Q2834cWL&rank=1">Goodreads</a></span>
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<p>Australian road trip narratives are more often described by fear than <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10417949109372836">frontierism</a>, as in Kenneth Cook’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1533656.Wake_in_Fright?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=4qzoc4GXml&rank=1">Wake in Fright</a> (1961) or cinema’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416315/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Wolf Creek</a> (2005). Similarly, Ari’s drug-fuelled trip around inner Melbourne in Christos Tsiolkas’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1208928.Loaded?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=2nFbx25oMr&rank=1">Loaded</a> (1995) tracks the urban intersections of individual, national and multicultural identity. </p>
<p>2020 has been a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-10/tara-june-winch-omar-sakr-win-at-prime-ministers-literary-awards/12969246">triumphant year</a> for Tara June Winch. Her earlier short story cycle, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27882034-swallow-the-air?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=q1Q2834cWL&rank=1">Swallow the Air</a> won the David Unaipon Award.</p>
<p>With a nod to the structure of The Canterbury Tales, Winch’s stories follow the cross country journey of a young Indigenous girl, May. She is determined to escape and change the cycles of violence and misery to which her family has been subjected. Like Tony Birch’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12928972-blood?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=bRoEKzldHe&rank=1">Blood</a> (2012), it adopts the road trip as a means of going back to Country, providing not only a specifically cultural innovation in the genre, but a different understanding of self-discovery.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-yield-wins-the-miles-franklin-a-powerful-story-of-violence-and-forms-of-resistance-142284">The Yield wins the Miles Franklin: a powerful story of violence and forms of resistance</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>5. Joe Hill’s N0S4A2 (2013)</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374142/original/file-20201210-13-ch7gut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Book cover: N0S4A2 (number plate)" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374142/original/file-20201210-13-ch7gut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374142/original/file-20201210-13-ch7gut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374142/original/file-20201210-13-ch7gut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374142/original/file-20201210-13-ch7gut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374142/original/file-20201210-13-ch7gut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374142/original/file-20201210-13-ch7gut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374142/original/file-20201210-13-ch7gut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1369591617l/15729539.jpg">Goodreads</a></span>
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<p>Not all road trips constitute journeys into the self. Instead, a psychological voyage might constitute a plunge into the depths of the nightmarish unconscious. </p>
<p>Joe Hill, son of that most famous horror writer Stephen King, offers up a road trip we might prefer not to take, although it does have a festive theme. In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15729539-nos4a2?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=DlL4vBqfCy&rank=1">N0S4A2</a>, Christmasland is the horrific and fantastic destination for the child victims of a phantom vehicle and its deranged driver. </p>
<p>Hill offers the chilling prophesy that “sooner or later a black car came for everyone”, pointing out the horrific inevitability of one final road trip. It’s a journey in the tradition of the monstrous vehicle, as in King’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10629.Christine?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=NU6NN6sH7L&rank=1">Christine</a> (1983), as well as the apocalyptic father-son walk in Cormac McCarthy’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6288.The_Road?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=JLG8xJCjFJ&rank=1">The Road </a>(2006), Josh Malerman’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18498558-bird-box?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=v1KR4W9LwJ&rank=1">Bird Box</a> (2014), King’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/149267.The_Stand?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=BdMmxlvtoz&rank=1">The Stand</a> (1978) and (as Richard Bachman) <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9014.The_Long_Walk?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=92yd490KrK&rank=1">The Long Walk</a> (1979).</p>
<p>After the year we’ve all had, I hope your road trip is less nightmarish.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150159/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Gildersleeve does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Summer is the time for road trips — and books that can take you on a journey of discovery.Jessica Gildersleeve, Associate Professor of English Literature, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1512512020-12-10T13:34:22Z2020-12-10T13:34:22ZWhy the Virgin of Guadalupe is more than a religious icon to Catholics in Mexico<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373698/original/file-20201208-15-120rxc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C67%2C6384%2C4048&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe, at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Mexico City. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakMexicoGoodFriday/cff5083b68d84ddcaba02fa2911337e5/photo?Query=VIRUS%20OUTBREAK%20MEXICO%20GOOD%20FRIDAY&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=58&currentItemNo=9">AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each year, as many as <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2019/12/every-year-millions-miracle-seeking-pilgrims-visit-mexico-city/">10 million people</a> travel to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, in what is believed to be the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/virgen-de-guadalupe-pilgrimage-will-be-online-say-mexico-s-n1248792">largest Catholic pilgrimage in the Americas</a>. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the pilgrimage, which is due to take place on Dec. 12, will instead be held online this year. </p>
<p>Normally, multiple pilgrimages take place around this time of the year throughout the country that end at the basilica – a church building specially recognized by the Catholic pope – of Our Lady of Guadalupe, an apparition of the Virgin Mary in Mexico. </p>
<p>In fact, images and statues of her are everywhere in Mexico. She is on altars in people’s homes, altars on street corners, posters in mechanic shops and restaurants. Even in the U.S., many Catholic churches with parishioners who have ties to Mexico <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/95tax2tf9780252042973.html">include a small chapel</a> to her.</p>
<p>The first time I went to Mexico City in 2011 as a Ph.D. student, I visited the shrine to the Virgin. Later, <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137546272">I wrote</a> <a href="http://www.sunypress.edu/showproduct.aspx?ProductID=7170&SEName=unholy-trinity">about her</a> importance in novels, short stories and movies – beyond a religious icon. </p>
<p>This pilgrimage is only one part of Mexican people’s connection to the Virgin of Guadalupe. </p>
<h2>Apparition of the Virgin</h2>
<p>During the pilgrimage in Mexico, people visit the shrine on a hill near where Virgin Mary is said to have <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2019/12/every-year-millions-miracle-seeking-pilgrims-visit-mexico-city/">appeared to an Aztec man named Juan Diego</a> who had converted to Christianity in 1531. </p>
<p>The legend goes that when Juan Diego told the bishop about it, he demanded proof. Juan Diego then went back to the shrine and the Virgin told him about a place he could pick some roses.</p>
<p>Juan Diego went back to the bishop, with his cloak full of roses. But when the bishop looked at the roses, it is said that an image of the Virgin appeared. In the belief that this was a miraculous occurrence, <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2016/12/12/10-things-know-about-virgin-guadalupe">a shrine to the Virgin was built in Tepeyac</a> in the northern part of Mexico City. </p>
<p>Today, this shrine is part of a large complex which includes several church buildings, a larger-than-life group of statues that portray the Virgin’s apparition to Juan Diego and a large space for outdoor Mass, a Catholic worship <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2016/12/12/10-things-know-about-virgin-guadalupe">service</a>. </p>
<p>Over the years, the shrine has undergone changes. A new basilica constructed in 1974 is now used for most services, although the older church <a href="http://services.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/mexican-phoenix-our-lady-guadalupe-image-and-tradition-across-five-centuries?format=PB&isbn=9780521531603">constructed in 1709 </a> still stands. </p>
<p>The most important object in the shrine is the miraculous image of the Virgin that appeared on Juan Diego’s cloak, which is displayed in front of a moving sidewalk in the new construction. </p>
<h2>Combining faith</h2>
<p>The story about how the Virgin appeared in Mexico has resemblance to reports of her apparitions in Spain. In the 14th century, the Virgin Mary was said to have appeared to a peasant near the river of Guadalupe in western Spain. The Virgin is believed to have told him to dig up an image of her that had allegedly <a href="http://services.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/mexican-phoenix-our-lady-guadalupe-image-and-tradition-across-five-centuries?format=PB&isbn=9780521531603">been buried for several centuries</a>.</p>
<p>Some of those involved in the Spanish conquest, such as Christopher Columbus and Hernán Cortés, reportedly prayed at her shrine in Spain <a href="https://ecommons.udayton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1256&context=marian_studies">before setting off for the Americas</a>. </p>
<p>When Spaniards colonized the Americas, which included the Aztec empire in central Mexico, in the early 16th century, <a href="http://services.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/mexican-phoenix-our-lady-guadalupe-image-and-tradition-across-five-centuries?format=PB&isbn=9780521531603">they brought the image and story of Our Lady of Guadalupe with them</a>.</p>
<p>What is noteworthy is that she is said to have appeared to Juan Diego in the same place where the Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs had worshiped the goddess Tonantzin. </p>
<p>The Spanish colonial administration, together with church officials, encouraged people to replace worshiping Tonantzin in Tepeyac with <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2016/12/12/10-things-know-about-virgin-guadalupe">worshiping the Virgin of Guadalupe in Tepeyac</a>. In this way, they could appear to replace Indigenous beliefs with Catholic ones. </p>
<p>While a church was built on the site in 1556, the Virgin of Guadalupe did not attract a large following until the mid-17th century, when church leaders collected sworn statements regarding miracles she is said to have performed. Her feast day was <a href="http://services.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/mexican-phoenix-our-lady-guadalupe-image-and-tradition-across-five-centuries?format=PB&isbn=9780521531603">moved at the time from September to December</a>. </p>
<p>Larger pilgrimages to Tepeyac began in the late 17th century, one of many such pilgrimages in the larger Catholic tradition of <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2019/12/every-year-millions-miracle-seeking-pilgrims-visit-mexico-city/">thanking a saint or apparition of the Virgin</a> for answering their prayers. </p>
<h2>Symbolic use</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373701/original/file-20201208-13-1vp1osr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373701/original/file-20201208-13-1vp1osr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373701/original/file-20201208-13-1vp1osr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373701/original/file-20201208-13-1vp1osr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373701/original/file-20201208-13-1vp1osr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373701/original/file-20201208-13-1vp1osr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373701/original/file-20201208-13-1vp1osr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373701/original/file-20201208-13-1vp1osr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The image of the Virgin of Guadalupe has been used in various ways to create a sense of community.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/faithful-is-seen-prays-to-the-virgin-of-guadalupe-wearing-a-news-photo/1227547802?adppopup=true">Ricardo Castelan Cruz / Eyepix Group/Barcroft Media via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the centuries, her image has been used in various ways to create a sense of community or to advance specific political goals. For example, during Mexico’s 19th-century independence movement, Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo used her image on his banners. In this way, he <a href="https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/spimis">successfully united many Mexicans</a> in their fight against Spain. Mexicans commemorate this in their Independence Day celebrations each September. </p>
<p>About 40 years later, Catholic Church leaders <a href="http://services.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/mexican-phoenix-our-lady-guadalupe-image-and-tradition-across-five-centuries?format=PB&isbn=9780521531603">would use her image</a> to attract Mexican people to their cause, as they fought against the 1857 liberal reforms that encouraged increasing separation of church and state. </p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Similarly, in the early 20th century, Mexico’s government enacted such strict secularism laws that Catholic bishops suspended Mass for three years. Catholic leaders again used images of the <a href="http://services.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/mexican-phoenix-our-lady-guadalupe-image-and-tradition-across-five-centuries?format=PB&isbn=9780521531603">Virgin of Guadalupe on their banners</a> to encourage the soldiers fighting against the anti-Catholic laws. </p>
<p>Today, her image is as varied as the Mexican experience. One of these is the <a href="https://www.forbes.com.mx/virgencita-plis-oracion-emprendedora/">light-skinned child-like “Virgencita plis” on everything</a> from small statues to face masks. It was <a href="https://www.npr.org/2013/12/12/250260398/mexicos-patron-saint-is-also-its-hello-kitty">designed in 2003 by a gift and toy company</a>, Distroller corporation. In this image, the Virgin <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0037768616629299">does not look Mexican and plays to very traditional</a> and often outdated ideas of femininity: innocent, nonthreatening, almost like children. The statue of the Virgin at the basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is dark-skinned, physically imposing and has Mexican features. </p>
<p>For each, she has her own meaning and a way of worship. And even if many people are not able to travel to her sanctuary, they will find other ways to honor the Lady of Guadalupe this year.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Janzen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City will instead be held online due to the pandemic. A scholar explains its history and its connection to Mexican people.Rebecca Janzen, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1445422020-09-09T12:17:48Z2020-09-09T12:17:48ZThe largest contemporary Muslim pilgrimage isn’t the hajj to Mecca, it’s the Shiite pilgrimage to Karbala in Iraq<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355168/original/file-20200827-16-1qsxjrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=61%2C30%2C5059%2C3040&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Shiite Muslims attend a mourning ritual during the Islamic month of Muharram, in the central shrine city of Karbala.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/iraqis-attend-a-mourning-ritual-as-shiite-muslims-news-photo/1228172416?adppopup=true">Photo by Mohammed SAWAF / AFP) (Photo by MOHAMMED SAWAF/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year, Shiite Muslims mark the death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussain with a mourning period that lasts a total of 50 days. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-ashura-how-this-shiite-muslim-holiday-inspires-millions-122610">Ashura</a>, the tenth day of the Islamic month of Muharram, commemorates the day Hussain died. </p>
<p>For millions of Shiites, this mourning period culminates in a pilgrimage to Karbala in Iraq. This pilgrimage has, in recent years, become the <a href="http://web.mit.edu/cfotini/www/Shia_Pilgrims_Survey.pdf">largest gathering of people in the world for a religious reason</a>. This year Ashura was observed on Aug. 30 and the pilgrimage, 40 days later, will end on Oct. 9, 2020. </p>
<p>My research focuses on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743812000050">Shiite shrines</a> and <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/500163">Muharram mourning practices</a>.
The city of Karbala, which I visited twice in 2013, is located 60 miles southwest of Baghdad and 45 miles north of Najaf, the other important Shiite shrine city in Iraq. </p>
<p>The pilgrimage and the city of Karbala have been through many changes over a more than 1000-year-old history. This year, the pilgrimage and the holy city are faced with a new challenge: COVID-19. </p>
<h2>The historic battle at Karbala</h2>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_3928">Karbala</a> is the place where Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussain was killed during what is known as the Battle of Karbala in A.D. 680. According to Shiites, Hussain and his men were martyred in this battle on the day of Ashura.</p>
<p>Following the death of Prophet Muhammad in A.D. 632, <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/191146">there was a dispute over who would be his rightful heir</a>. Sunnis, who make up the majority of Muslims, believe that Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s friend and father-in-law, rightly succeeded Muhammad in A.D. 632. Shiites believe that Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, should have been Muhammad’s successor.</p>
<p>After years of civil war, as well as wars of expansion, the Arab Umayyad dynasty established its rule over the region, from the Middle East to North Africa from A.D. 661 to 750. But there were those who decried Umayyad rule.</p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0304">Hussain had been invited by the inhabitants of Kufa</a>, which was a garrison town near Najaf, to come and lead them in a revolt against the Umayyad caliph in Damascus. Umayyad forces first put down the unrest in Kufa and then met and killed Hussain and his men on the desert plains of Karbala. </p>
<p>For Shiite Muslims, Hussain was their third imam, a worldly and spiritual leader whose direct relationship to Muhammad gave him special status and authority.</p>
<p>After Hussain’s death, a tomb was soon built which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201X-25-1-78">attracted devotees and benefactors</a>. Najaf is where Hussain’s father, Ali, lies buried. </p>
<h2>The pilgrimage throughout history</h2>
<p>Over the years, Hussain’s shrine was <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_3928">destroyed, rebuilt, remodeled and expanded</a>. </p>
<p>Muharram mourning rituals, whether in Karbala or elsewhere, have been used for political ends. Sometimes, Muharram practices were sponsored by rulers who sought to gain popular support. At other times, the rituals turned into anti-government protests. Fearing civil unrest, some rulers <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/500163">prohibited or limited pilgrimage</a> to Karbala. </p>
<p>For example, Mutawakkil, a caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, which ruled over a vast Islamic empire from the eighth to the 13th century, feared that the rituals <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201X-25-1-78">inflamed anti-regime fervor</a>. He <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_3928">destroyed the tomb in A.D. 850 and banned the pilgrimage to Karbala</a>. </p>
<p>Karbala and Najaf grew in importance in the 16th century with the founding of a Shiite state in Persia, today’s Iran, under <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300035315/introduction-shii-islam">Shah Ismail I</a>. From then on, the Iraqi shrine cities attracted increasing numbers of pilgrims.</p>
<p>Many pilgrims brought bodies of deceased relatives because of a belief that <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691115757/the-shiis-of-iraq">being buried close to Ali or Hussain</a> ensures that when the deceased stands in front of God on Judgment Day, Ali or Hussain will appeal to God’s mercy to allow the person’s soul to enter heaven. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355170/original/file-20200827-16-tziofs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355170/original/file-20200827-16-tziofs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355170/original/file-20200827-16-tziofs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355170/original/file-20200827-16-tziofs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355170/original/file-20200827-16-tziofs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355170/original/file-20200827-16-tziofs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355170/original/file-20200827-16-tziofs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355170/original/file-20200827-16-tziofs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, Iraq.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-picture-shows-a-partial-view-of-the-imam-ali-mosque-at-news-photo/1228135688?adppopup=true">Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This has led to “<a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000228324">Wadi al-Salam</a>,” Arabic for “Valley of Peace,” in Najaf becoming one of the world’s largest cemeteries, holding up to 5 million corpses. </p>
<p>The transport and burial of corpses provided employment for a wide strata of the population in Najaf and Karbala. Higher fees were charged from those wanting to be closer to Ali or Hussain in the burial site. </p>
<p>Blaming the corpse traffic as one of the reasons for several outbreaks of cholera in 19th-century Persia and Ottoman Iraq, the Ottoman government, which ruled over Iraq from the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201U-2010-031">sought to restrict and control the number of corpses that were brought in</a>. </p>
<p>Yet even under these restrictions, around <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000228324">20,000 dead bodies were brought to Najaf each year at the start of the 20th century</a>. Today, roughly 100,000 are brought for burial in Najaf annually. </p>
<h2>From decline to rebirth</h2>
<p>Under the authoritarian Iraqi Baath regime, from the early 1970s to 2003, <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/iraq-since-1958-9781860646225/">Shiite pilgrimage was closely monitored and limited</a>.</p>
<p>Like many previous rulers, Saddam Hussain feared that the rituals would be used in order to incite rebellion against his regime, that the pilgrimage would turn into a protest. But once Saddam was overthrown by U.S.-led forces in 2003, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1386/pi.4.1.61_1">the pilgrimage flourished again</a>.</p>
<p>In 2004, more than 2 million pilgrims walked to Karbala, and the most common route was from Najaf to Karbala. Since then, the pilgrimage to Karbala has even eclipsed the <a href="https://www.stats.gov.sa/sites/default/files/haj_40_en.pdf">hajj, which annually draws between 2 and 3 million</a>. In 2014, <a href="http://web.mit.edu/cfotini/www/Shia_Pilgrims_Survey.pdf">17 million people</a> reportedly completed the walk to Karbala. By 2016, the number of pilgrims increased to 22 million. </p>
<p>This year, fear of the spread of COVID-19 has greatly restricted many pilgrimages, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/hajj-cancellation-due-to-coronavirus-is-not-the-first-time-plague-has-disrupted-this-muslim-pilgrimage-135900">the hajj</a>. Only a limited number of Muslims already inside Saudi Arabia was allowed to attend. </p>
<p>As a precautionary measure, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a top Iraqi Shiite leader, <a href="https://mainstay.us/muharram-message-2020/">encouraged his followers to mourn at home</a>, rather than visit Karbala. </p>
<p>For Ashura this year, Shiites gathered in Najaf and Karbala, but on a much smaller scale. There was social distancing, but not everywhere. <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/afp/2020/08/iraq-religion.html">Not all pilgrims wore masks</a>. In the absence of stringent measures, the <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-09-highest-virus-iraq.html">number of infections in Iraq has already spiked</a>. Whether the government will respond with stricter policies for the pilgrimage at the beginning of October remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144542/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edith Szanto does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Millions of Muslims travel to Karbala in Iraq for one of the largest annual pilgrimages. The pilgrimage has adapted and changed over its centuries-old history.Edith Szanto, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of AlabamaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1443942020-08-27T12:26:01Z2020-08-27T12:26:01ZReligious tourism has been hit hard in the pandemic as sites close and pilgrimages are put on hold<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354447/original/file-20200824-16-4wt75l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5690%2C3787&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Only a handful of tourists at the usually busy St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tourists-walk-on-a-deserted-st-peters-square-at-the-vatican-news-photo/1205429335?adppopup=true">Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Religious tourism is among the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/016073839290106Y">oldest forms of planned travel</a> and to this day remains a huge industry.</p>
<p>About <a href="https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1219&context=ijrtp">300 to 330 million tourists</a> visit the world’s key religious sites every year, according to a 2017 estimate. Some 600 million national and international religious trips are made around the world, generating around <a href="https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1219&context=ijrtp">US$18 billion in global revenues</a>. It makes up a sizeable chunk of an overall tourism sector that has been significantly affected by the spread of the coroanvirus, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/global-tourism-industry-may-shrink-by-more-than-50-due-to-the-pandemic-134306">63.8% of travelers reducing their travel plans</a> as a result. </p>
<h2>A concern of all faiths</h2>
<p>As COVID-19 evolved to become a global pandemic, <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20200316-virus-hit-iran-closes-four-key-religious-sites">governments across the globe closed sacred sites</a> and <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/coronavirus-thousands-of-muslims-in-limbo-as-saudi-arabia-bans-religious-pilgrimages">temporarily banned religious travel</a>.</p>
<p>It has affected popular destinations of all faiths. <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/jerusalem-deputy-mayor-tourism-not-enough-to-survive-coronavirus-crisis-637695">Jerusalem</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vatican-finances/coronavirus-drains-vatican-coffers-as-income-falls-deficits-loom-idUSKBN22P1OR">Vatican City</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/03/08/813384403/saudi-arabia-halts-international-travel-into-country-over-coronavirus-concerns">Mecca</a> – which attract millions of Jewish, Christian and Muslim visitors annually – are among the worst affected. </p>
<p>Likewise, Buddhist sites such as Nepal’s <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/mahabodhi-temple-shut/articleshow/74751494.cms">Lumbini Temple and India’s Mahabodhi Temple</a>, as well as the Hindu temple of <a href="http://www.newsonair.com/News?title=Number-of-devotees-visiting-Kashi-Vishwanath-temple-in-Varanasi-reduces-amid-Coronavirus-pandemic&id=391406">Kashi Vishwanath</a>, have seen a slump in visitors.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354467/original/file-20200824-16-1s1r9wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354467/original/file-20200824-16-1s1r9wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354467/original/file-20200824-16-1s1r9wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354467/original/file-20200824-16-1s1r9wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354467/original/file-20200824-16-1s1r9wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354467/original/file-20200824-16-1s1r9wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354467/original/file-20200824-16-1s1r9wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Mahabodhi temple in India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mahabodhi-temple-bodh-gaya-bihar-india-3rd-century-bc-news-photo/1095389794?adppopup=true">De Agostini Editorial/ Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This has had huge financial implications for the host countries.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/world/middleeast/pilgrims-hajj-mecca-coronavirus-pandemic.html">last year approximately 2.5 million Muslims</a> from around the world <a href="https://theconversation.com/explaining-the-muslim-pilgrimage-of-hajj-83284">performed the hajj</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738320300591">one of the five pillars of Islam</a>, with nearly 2 million coming from outside of Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/muslims-downsized-hajj-pilgrimage-coronavirus-pandemic-200729055254952.html">this year only around 10,000 people</a> were expected to do the pilgrimage while <a href="https://theconversation.com/hajj-cancellation-due-to-coronavirus-is-not-the-first-time-plague-has-disrupted-this-muslim-pilgrimage-135900">observing social distancing measures</a>.</p>
<p>The Saudi Kingdom usually earns $12 billion per year from the hajj and the Umrah – <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-fears-put-a-halt-to-the-muslim-pilgrimage-of-umrah-but-not-yet-the-hajj-132943">a minor pilgrimage</a> that can be done anytime during the year. </p>
<p>The pilgrimages are seen as a way to diversify the economy from being reliant on the oil sector. Year-round religious visits contributes to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/saudi-arabia-hajj-cancellation-spells-frustration-and-empty-pockets/a-54064035">20% of the kingdom’s nonoil GDP</a> and around 7% of the total GDP. </p>
<p>The Saudi Kingdom’s economy is already <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-hajj-mecca-pilgrims.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article">reeling from the impact of low oil prices</a>, which have led to a budget deficit. It is <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/saudi-arabia-hajj-cancellation-spells-frustration-and-empty-pockets/a-54064035">expected to shrink by 6.8%</a> in 2020.</p>
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<h2>Religion and revenues</h2>
<p>Saudi Arabia is far from alone. Jordan, which hosts <a href="https://www.jordanprivatetours.net/jordan-tours/jordan-news/number-of-overnight-religious-tourists-increases.html">35 Islamic sites and shrines and 34 Christian holy sites</a>, has closed its borders because of COVID-19. Tourism accounts for about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/15/ghosts-replace-crowds-as-covid-19-rattles-jordans-ancient-city-of-petra">15% of the country’s GDP</a> and sustains an estimated 55,000 jobs. </p>
<p>Last year more than 1 million travelers visited Wadi Musa, the Jordanian Valley of Moses – an important site where Moses is said to have produced water from a rock. Up to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/15/ghosts-replace-crowds-as-covid-19-rattles-jordans-ancient-city-of-petra">80% of people’s income in the area relies on tourism</a>.</p>
<p>Tourism revenues in Jordan dropped by <a href="https://insidearabia.com/life-relaunched-in-jordan-after-costly-lockdown/">10.7% to $1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2020</a> as the pandemic spread.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354448/original/file-20200824-14-ni4u33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354448/original/file-20200824-14-ni4u33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354448/original/file-20200824-14-ni4u33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354448/original/file-20200824-14-ni4u33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354448/original/file-20200824-14-ni4u33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354448/original/file-20200824-14-ni4u33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354448/original/file-20200824-14-ni4u33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Social distancing around the Kaaba in Mecca during this year’s hajj.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/muslim-pilgrims-circumambulate-around-the-kaaba-islams-news-photo/1227881216?adppopup=true">STR/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>It is a similar story across the Middle East. </p>
<p>In Iran, only <a href="https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/450692/Coronavirus-cuts-tourists-visiting-Yazd-by-99">20,000 domestic tourists and 66 foreign tourists visited Yazd</a> – a UNESCO world heritage site that dates back to A.D. 224 – between March and June 2020. The site is a holy place for followers of Islam, Judaism and Zoroastrianism. The number of tourists this year represents <a href="https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/450692/Coronavirus-cuts-tourists-visiting-Yazd-by-99">just 1% of the figure for the previous year</a>.</p>
<p>In June, just 5,800 people visited Israel, a religiously important destination for Christians, Muslims and Jews alike, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/.premium-how-to-rescue-israeli-tourism-from-a-fatal-virus-1.8994193">compared to 365,000 for the same month in 2019</a>. It is expected that the pandemic will result in a <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/coronavirus-israels-tourism-industry-faces-its-fiercest-battle-620798">$1.16 billion damage to the country’s tourism industry</a>, according to the Israel Hotel Association.</p>
<p>For some prominent individual sites of pilgrimage, the loss of revenue has been devastating – and it is an experience shared across the globe.</p>
<p>Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in France usually welcomes up to 5 million visitors every year. But in order to curtail the spread in France, the shrine closed, <a href="https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2020/07/july-16-virtual-pilgrimage-to-lourdes-to-affirm-prayer-against-covid-19/">offering only virtual pilgrimages</a>. It has reportedly resulted in a deficit of <a href="https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2020/07/july-16-virtual-pilgrimage-to-lourdes-to-affirm-prayer-against-covid-19/">$9.06 million</a> for the sanctuary. </p>
<p>Many places of pilgrimage support a whole industry in travel, transport and accommodation, and all that has taken a hit.</p>
<p>For the entire travel industry, this unprecedented crisis has resulted in <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/06/coronavirus-pandemics-impact-on-travel-tourism-in-5-charts.html">a $2.7 trillion drop in revenue and job losses in excess of 100 million</a> in 2020. The United Nations World Tourism Organization estimates that for the year, international arrivals will be <a href="https://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/ditcinf2020d3_en.pdf">down by between 850 million to 1.1 billion</a>, depending on when borders fully reopen.</p>
<h2>Spiritual well-being</h2>
<p>And it isn’t just about the financial hit. Uncertainty and anxiety related to COVID-19 also affects people’s <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30347-3/fulltext">psychological and mental health</a>. Many people indulge in religious tourism for reasons of spiritual comfort or to pray for forgiveness or salvation.</p>
<p>For others it is a way to <a href="https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1219&context=ijrtp">demonstrate their devotion to a faith</a>. In some religions, there is a belief that all individuals who are healthy and financially able to should undertake a journey to their respective holy sites at least once in their lifetime. This is true, for example, for Muslims and participation in the hajj.</p>
<p>As such, people may have put away savings their entire life and planned for years for such a trip. Having to abandon these plans due to travel restrictions or the closure of religious sites can be particularly distressing.</p>
<p>Government <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2020/07/27/why-governments-are-paying-people-to-go-on-holiday">subsidies and relief packages</a>, along with the implementation of comprehensive safety and recovery measures, can help <a href="https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/consumer-markets/library/how-to-restore-confidence-in-travel-during-covid-19.html">revive customer trust</a> and lead to increased travel.</p>
<p>But as scholars of the travel industry, we do believe that due to the ongoing travel restrictions and a slump in confidence in travel amid the pandemic, countries with a heavy reliance on tourism will likely continue to face challenges. And the uncertainty and possibility of newer waves of virus may further dent the tourism industry, including religious travel.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144394/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As religious sites put pilgrimages on hold, a whole industry in travel, transport and accommodation takes a hit.Faizan Ali, Assistant Professor of Hospitality and Tourism, University of South FloridaCihan Cobanoglu, Professor of Hospitality and Tourism, University of South FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1435182020-08-10T12:08:09Z2020-08-10T12:08:09ZAs coronavirus curtails travel, backyard pilgrimages become the way to a spiritual journey<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351378/original/file-20200805-16-r85hkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C22%2C2073%2C1387&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">COVID-19 is changing how people go on pilgrimages.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-wearing-mask-and-gloves-praying-to-god-due-to-royalty-free-image/1241966464?adppopup=true">conceptual,fashion,advertising/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many major religious pilgrimages have been canceled or curtailed in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19. These have included the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/world/middleeast/hajj-pilgrimage-canceled.html">Hajj</a>, a religious milestone for Muslims the world over; the Hindu pilgrimage, known as the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-india/india-cancels-historic-hindu-pilgrimage-as-coronavirus-cases-mount-idUSKCN24N14P">Amarnath Yatra</a> high in the mountains of Kashmir; and <a href="https://www.orderofmalta.int/2020/03/12/coronavirus-cancelled-the-62nd-pilgrimage-to-lourdes-and-all-international-conferences/">pilgrimages to Lourdes</a> in France. </p>
<p>Pilgrims have faced travel delays and cancellations for centuries. Reasons ranged from financial hardship and agricultural responsibilities to what is now all too familiar to modern-day pilgrims – plague or ill health. </p>
<p>Then, as now, one strategy has been to bring the pilgrimage home or into the religious community. </p>
<h2>Journey of a thousand miles</h2>
<p>Pilgrimage can be an interior or outward journey and while <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003043429">individual motivations may vary</a>, it can be an act of religious devotion or a way to seek closeness with the divine. </p>
<p>Through the centuries and across cultures, those who longed to go on a sacred journey would find <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1594960?seq=1">alternative ways to do so</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A map of Jerusalem. Tracing a map could be a way to a pilgrimage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/21/Brussels_map_of_Jerusalem.jpg/1024px-Brussels_map_of_Jerusalem.jpg">Maps of Jerusalem</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Reading travel narratives, tracing a map with the finger or eye, or <a href="https://www.britishmuseumshoponline.org/matter-of-faith-an-interdisciplinary-study-of-relics-and-relic-veneration-in-the-medieval-period.html">holding a souvenir</a> brought back from a sacred site helped facilitate a real sense of travel for the homebound pilgrim. Through these visual or material aids, people felt as though they, too, were having a pilgrimage experience, and even connecting with others. </p>
<p>One such example is the story of the Dominican friar Felix Fabri, who was known for recording his own pilgrimages in various formats, some geared toward the laity and some for his brothers. </p>
<p>Fabri was approached in the 1490s by a group of cloistered nuns, meaning that they had professed vows to lead a contemplative life in the quietude of their community. They desired a <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/261870/pdf">devotional exercise</a> so they could receive the spiritual benefits of pilgrimage without having to break their promise of a life that was sheltered from the outside world.</p>
<p>He produced “Die Sionpilger,” a virtual pilgrimage in the form of a day-to-day guidebook to Santiago de Compostela, Jerusalem and Rome. In these cities, pilgrims would encounter sites and scenes associated with many facets of their religion: shrines to honor Jesus and the saints, relics, great cathedrals and sacred landscapes associated with miraculous events and stories. </p>
<p>Fabri’s guidebook sent the pilgrim on an imaginative journey of a thousand miles, without having to take a single step. </p>
<h2>DIY pilgrimages</h2>
<p>My current <a href="https://carepackagegtu.wordpress.com/2020/07/01/spotlight-barush/">book project</a> shows that from Lourdes to South Africa, from Jerusalem to England, from Ecuador to California, DIY pilgrimages are not just a medieval phenomenon. One such example is Phil Volker’s backyard Camino.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Phil’s Camino.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kathryn Barush</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Volker is a 72-year-old father and now grandfather, woodworker and veteran who mapped the Camino de Santiago onto his backyard in Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest. Volker prays the rosary as he walks: for those who have been impacted by the pandemic, his family, his neighbors, the world. </p>
<p>After a cancer diagnosis in 2013, a few things came together to inspire Volker to build a backyard Camino, including the film “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/movies/the-way-directed-by-emilio-estevez-review.html">The Way</a>,” a pocket-sized book of meditations, “<a href="https://annieoneil.com/">Everyday Camino With Annie</a>” by Annie O'Neil and <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo5974687.html">the story of Eratosthenes</a>, the Greek polymath from the second century B.C. who figured out a way to measure the circumference of the Earth using the Sun, a stick and a well.</p>
<p>“For me, this guy was the grand godfather of do-it-yourselfers. How can someone pull off this kind of a caper with things at hand in his own backyard? It got me thinking, what else can come out of one’s backyard?,” he told me.</p>
<p>Volker began walking a circuitous route around his 10-acre property on Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest. It was a chance to exercise, which his doctors had encouraged, but also created a space to think and pray. </p>
<p>Each lap around the property is just over a half-mile. Realizing that he was covering quite a distance, he found a map of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route to track his progress, calculating that 909 laps would get him from St. Jean Pied-de-Port to the Cathedral of St. James. </p>
<p>To date, Volker has completed three 500-mile Caminos without leaving his backyard. </p>
<p>Thanks to a <a href="http://philscamino.com">documentary film</a>, Volker’s <a href="http://caminoheads.com">daily blog</a> and an <a href="https://www.nwcatholic.org/features/nw-stories/vashon-camino-pilgrimage">article</a> in the magazine “Northwest Catholic,” the backyard Camino has attracted many visitors, some simply curious but many who are seeking healing and solace.</p>
<h2>Pilgrimage and remembrance</h2>
<p>The story of Volker’s backyard Camino inspired Sara Postlethwaite, a sister of the Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity, to map <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/travel/ireland/go-walk-st-kevin-s-way-co-wicklow-1.553577">St. Kevin’s Way</a>, a 19-mile pilgrimage route in County Wicklow, Ireland onto a series of daily 1.5-mile circuits in Daly City, California.</p>
<p>The route rambles along roads and countryside from Hollywood to the ruins of the monastery that St. Kevin, a sixth-century abbot, had founded in Glendalough. Postlethwaite had intended to travel back to her native Ireland in the spring of 2020 to walk the route in person, but due to pandemic-related travel restrictions, she brought the pilgrimage to her home in Daly City. </p>
<p>Every so often, Postlethwaite would check in on Google Maps to see where she was along the Irish route, pivoting the camera to see surrounding trees or, at one point, finding herself in the center of an old stone circle.</p>
<p>Several joined Postlethwaite’s walk in solidarity, both in the U.S. and overseas. </p>
<p>After each day’s walk, she paused at the shed at her community house, where she had drawn a to-scale version of the Market Cross at Glendalough.</p>
<p>As Postlethwaite traced the intersecting knots, circles and image of the crucified Christ with her chalk, she reflected not just on the suffering caused by the pandemic but also about issues of racism, justice and privilege. In particular, she remembered <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-shooting-georgia.html">Ahmaud Arbery</a>, a Black jogger shot by two white men in a fatal confrontation in February 2020. She inscribed his name on the chalk cross. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maggie Preston’s chalk labyrinth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maggie Preston</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For Berkeley-based artist <a href="https://www.maggiepreston.com">Maggie Preston</a>, a DIY chalk labyrinth on the street outside her house became a way to connect with her neighbors and her three-year-old son. There is a link here with the medieval strategies for bringing longer pilgrimages into the church or community. <a href="https://www.luc.edu/medieval/labyrinths/imaginary_pilgrimage.shtml">Scholars have suggested</a> that labyrinths may have been based on maps of Jerusalem, providing a scaled-down version of a much longer pilgrimage route. </p>
<p>They started out by chalking in the places they could no longer go – the aquarium, the zoo, a train journey – and then created a simple labyrinth formed by a continuous path in seven half-circles.</p>
<p>“A labyrinth gave us a greater destination, not just somewhere to imagine going, but a circuitous path to literally travel with our feet,” she told me.</p>
<p>As neighbors discovered the labyrinth, it began to create a genuine sense of community akin to that which many seek to find when they embark on a much longer pilgrimage.</p>
<h2>‘Relearn to pretend’</h2>
<p>Volker’s cancer has progressed to stage IV and he celebrated his 100th chemo treatment back in 2017, but he is still walking and praying on a regular basis. He offers the following advice: </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350032/original/file-20200728-17-4ihi80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350032/original/file-20200728-17-4ihi80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350032/original/file-20200728-17-4ihi80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350032/original/file-20200728-17-4ihi80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350032/original/file-20200728-17-4ihi80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350032/original/file-20200728-17-4ihi80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350032/original/file-20200728-17-4ihi80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An aerial view of Volker’s backyard and map by Volker, from the film ‘Phil’s Camino,’ directed by Annie O'Neil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Annie O'Neil's documentary</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“For folks starting their own backyard Camino I think that creating the myth is the most important consideration. Study maps, learn to pronounce the names of the towns, walk in the dust and the mud, be out there in the rain, drink their wine and eat their food, relearn to pretend.” </p>
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<p><a href="https://www.ats.edu/">Graduate Theological Union and the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University are members of the Association of Theological Schools</a></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Barush is affiliated with British Pilgrimage Trust. </span></em></p>The pandemic has inspired new forms of pilgrimages – some do-it-yourself, in which people are walking in their backyards or nearby spaces and finding meaning.Kathryn Barush, Chair and Associate Professor of Art History and Religion, Graduate Theological UnionLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1429652020-07-23T12:17:10Z2020-07-23T12:17:10ZOnline Christian pilgrimage: How a virtual tour to Lourdes follows a tradition of innovation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348984/original/file-20200722-20-dazogk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C18%2C3096%2C1881&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People wearing masks and social distancing at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes on May 30, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/faithfuls-wearing-protective-facemasks-sit-and-stand-as-news-photo/1216287453?adppopup=true">Laurent Dart/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Catholic Church held what is being <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2020-07/lourdes-to-host-first-online-world-pilgrimage.html">termed as the first online pilgrimage</a> to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France. Earlier this spring, for the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisobrien/2020/07/16/lourdes-holds-first-online-pilgrimage-as-city-fights-to-save-religious-tourism-business/#2f2d5baa1807">first time in its 162-year existence</a> the shrine was closed as part of measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus.</p>
<p>This online pilgrimage included many elements of the actual journey such as <a href="https://lourdesvolunteers.org/what-is-a-virtual-pilgrimage/">traditional prayers and communion</a>, but recreated for a virtual experience. Prayers and services were offered in both English and Spanish. Participants were shown scenes of the healing waters, taken on a virtual tour of the cave and heard music that is part of the normal, in-person experience. </p>
<p>As a scholar of the <a href="https://colorado.academia.edu/SamBoyd">Bible, Judaism and Christianity</a>, I know the importance of pilgrimages. But rituals have often been adapted in the face of difficult circumstances.</p>
<h2>The pilgrimage of Lourdes</h2>
<p>In 1858, 14-year old <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/bernadette-of-lourdes-9781441175779/">Bernadette Soubirous</a>, the oldest of nine children born to a local miller and laundrywoman in southwestern France, claimed to have had a series of visitations of an apparition of a woman in a cave in Lourdes. </p>
<p>Four years later, in 1862, local Catholic authorities confirmed that the visions were of the Virgin Mary. The confirmation process was based on both interviews with Soubirous as well as <a href="https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190867355.001.0001/oso-9780190867355">through the investigation of events</a> at the grotto that were deemed miraculous. </p>
<p><a href="https://cornellup.degruyter.com/view/title/551790?language=en">Ever since</a>, the site has been a pivotal place for pilgrimage rites, particularly on July 16, commemorating the last visitation of Mary to Soubirous. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Some of these rites involve immersion in, or drinking from, waters in Lourdes, which are believed to hold healing powers. In 1879, a woman from the United States named <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300074994/material-christianity">Mary Hayes</a>, who suffered from severe headaches, wrote a letter to Father Alexis Granger about the healing powers of the water. </p>
<p>Granger was originally from France but at that time was the pastor of the Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame. He had given Hayes some of the water from Lourdes to help with her ailments. Hayes reported that the healing waters of Lourdes had a restorative effect, <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300074994/material-christianity">stating</a> that “I have more faith in” the waters “than in all the doctors of the world.”</p>
<p>As rumors of healing miracles at the pools of the grotto in Lourdes became more numerous in the 19th century, the pilgrimages every July to commemorate the appearance of Mary to Soubirous became <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/lourdes-9780141889900">much more important</a> in Catholic religious practice.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348932/original/file-20200722-24-n9n551.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348932/original/file-20200722-24-n9n551.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348932/original/file-20200722-24-n9n551.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348932/original/file-20200722-24-n9n551.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348932/original/file-20200722-24-n9n551.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348932/original/file-20200722-24-n9n551.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348932/original/file-20200722-24-n9n551.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348932/original/file-20200722-24-n9n551.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Pilgrims filling bottles with spring water flowing from taps installed near the grotto of the Sanctuaries of Lourdes in 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/des-p%C3%A9lerins-remplissent-le-28-ao%C3%BBt-2008-des-gourdes-et-des-news-photo/1163197814?adppopup=true">Eric Cabanis/ AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>A place for God’s dwelling</h2>
<p>During a pilgrimage, people <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/pilgrimage-a-very-short-introduction-9780198718222?cc=us&lang=en&">visit a place</a>, often where a significant religious event occurred. According to the Bible, locations where God appeared to humans could become special sites where regular pilgrimages could happen. </p>
<p>For example, the book of <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/deuteronomy-and-the-hermeneutics-of-legal-innovation-9780195112801?cc=us&lang=en&">Deuteronomy</a>, part of the Bible called the Torah and traditionally believed to have been written by Moses, commands ancient Israelites to come three times in a year to the place where God “causes his name to dwell,” thought to be Jerusalem. </p>
<p>The significance of <a href="https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/jerusalem-pilgrimage-road-identified/">this pilgrimage</a> clearly played an important role in ancient Israelite religion. Archaeological excavations have revealed ancient routes attesting to journeys of pilgrims to Jerusalem. Parts of the book of the Psalms in the Bible may also have been ancient songs, called “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/psalms/E13E5E08245E35A397A5C217F0FABC70">psalms of ascent</a>,” that pilgrims sung on their routes.</p>
<p>While most translations of the book of Deuteronomy indicate that pilgrims “appear before the Lord,” evidence exists that the original text suggests that pilgrims <a href="https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/article/the-face-of-god-and-the-etiquette-of-eye-contact-visitation-pilgrimage-and-prophetic-vision-in-ancient-israelite-and-early-jewish-imagination-101628094457012799440186?no_cache=1">would actually see God</a>. </p>
<p>Deuteronomy makes it clear that such visitations to the holy site will bring tangible benefits in agricultural produce.</p>
<h2>Spiritual experience</h2>
<p>Despite the mandate in the Bible for pilgrimage, such journeys had limited value in the earliest centuries of Christianity. For many Christians during this time, physical places like Jerusalem were more valuable as <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/55533">spiritual concepts</a> than actual destinations for pilgrims. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/4886/jerusalem-by-karen-armstrong/">Karen Armstrong</a>, author of many books on religion and history, observes that Origen, a third century A.D. Christian scholar, visited Jerusalem and its environs in order to understand where certain events in the Bible occurred.</p>
<p>Such a visit, however, was not a pilgrimage, and, according to Armstrong, Origen “certainly did not expect to get a spiritual experience by visiting a mere geographical location, however august its associations.” </p>
<p>The importance of pilgrimage changed and occupied a more <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/pilgrimage-in-graeco-roman-and-early-christian-antiquity-9780199237913?cc=us&lang=en&">central place</a> in Christianity beginning in the fourth century A.D. when the Roman emperor <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Emperor-Constantine/Pohlsander-Pohlsander/p/book/9780415319386">Constantine</a> converted to Christianity. </p>
<p>His mother Helena visited <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/4886/jerusalem-by-karen-armstrong/">Jerusalem and Israel</a>, following the footsteps of the life, trial and death of Jesus. </p>
<p>It was a general belief in the ancient world that anywhere God or a divine emissary made themselves visible to humans could become a holy space. <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Relics-Shrines-and-Pilgrimages-Sanctity-in-Europe-from-Late-Antiquity/Pazos/p/book/9780367188672">Materials</a> from such divine visitation could become holy relics around which stories of miracles and shrines, objects of pilgrimage destinations, could be constructed. </p>
<p>Martin of Tours, a prominent figure in Christian monasticism in the sixth century A.D., saw a destitute man and, remembering Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew that caring for the poor is like caring for God, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/296647/christianity-by-diarmaid-macculloch/">Martin gave the poor man his cloak</a>. </p>
<p>The destitute man revealed himself to be Jesus himself, and portions of that “little cloak,” or capella in Latin, were housed in small churches. The origins of the word “chapel” was derived from capella – spaces that, at least in some cases, would become destinations for pilgrimages. </p>
<h2>Quarantine and disruptions</h2>
<p>While pilgrimage has a long history, such practice can adapt to changing circumstances.</p>
<p>The Bible, in the Old Testament book of Leviticus chapters 13 and 14, requires that individuals showing evidence of exposure to a highly infectious skin disease be separated from the larger community. </p>
<p>This passage provides the platform for <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/35/9/1071/330421">the belief</a> that quarantine is necessary during the outbreak of an infectious disease. As such, for many priests and pastors these chapters allow a biblical warrant for <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahalothman/coronavirus-churches-easter">innovation</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348933/original/file-20200722-16-1s3u4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348933/original/file-20200722-16-1s3u4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348933/original/file-20200722-16-1s3u4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348933/original/file-20200722-16-1s3u4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348933/original/file-20200722-16-1s3u4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348933/original/file-20200722-16-1s3u4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348933/original/file-20200722-16-1s3u4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shop selling consecrated water in the city of Lourdes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/shop-selling-consacrated-water-in-the-city-of-lourdes-news-photo/481682201?adppopup=true">BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Indeed, <a href="https://lourdesvolunteers.org/request-lourdes-water/">for many years</a>, the healing waters of Lourdes have been packaged and distributed worldwide for those who can’t go on the pilgrimage.</p>
<p>The pilgrimage undoubtedly remains an important journey for many Christians, even when taken online. It attests to transformations of the ritual in the face of difficult circumstances. In fact, social media estimated that participation was <a href="https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2020/07/july-16-virtual-pilgrimage-to-lourdes-to-affirm-prayer-against-covid-19/">five times</a> greater than normal viewership in a pilgrimage. </p>
<p>The coronavirus pandemic has caused unprecedented disruptions to many religious activities. But the adaptations to the pilgrimage to Lourdes in 2020 show that adaptation and innovation can play a key role in observing rituals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel L. Boyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Coronavirus is causing religious communities to rethink ways of expressing their faith. In the spirit of finding innovative ways to continue rituals, the pilgrimage to Lourdes was conducted online.Samuel L. Boyd, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1411422020-06-26T14:34:03Z2020-06-26T14:34:03ZHajj 2020: coronavirus pandemic frustrates Saudi vision for expanded religious tourism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344251/original/file-20200626-104510-kekfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=60%2C43%2C5691%2C3742&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muslim pilgrims circle round the Kaaba in Mecca in 2019. The numbers will be dramatically reduced in 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Saudi Arabia has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/hajj-2020-year-pilgrimage-200623085733669.html">finally clarified</a> that due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic only very limited numbers of local pilgrims will be allowed to perform Hajj in 2020. During the past decade, the kingdom has typically welcomed between <a href="https://www.stats.gov.sa/sites/default/files/haj_40_en.pdf">1.9 to 3.2 million</a> pilgrims per year from across the Muslim world, generating more than <a href="https://www.accaglobal.com/an/en/member/member/accounting-business/2018/07/insights/economics-hajj.html">US$8 billion</a> in annual revenue for the Saudi economy.</p>
<p>No Hajjis from outside Saudi Arabia will be permitted to travel to Mecca in 2020 due to the high risk of infection. Managing crowds is normally a challenge during the pilgrimage. So, over the five days prescribed in the Islamic lunar calendar – which fall between July 28 and August 2 in 2020 – at most 10,000 Saudis and nationals from other countries resident in Saudi Arabia will perform the rituals. They must follow physical and social distancing protocols. </p>
<p>While the Hajj has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/hajj-cancellation-due-to-coronavirus-is-not-the-first-time-plague-has-disrupted-this-muslim-pilgrimage-135900">restricted and suspended</a> in the past because of conflict or disease, 2020 is the first time Saudi Arabia – established in 1932 – has so significantly curtailed the pilgrimage. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, given huge drops in the current demand for oil due to the economic crisis provoked by COVID-19, the longer-term impact of the virus could deal a real blow to Saudi Arabia’s ambitions to diversify its economy by expanding pilgrimage-based tourism. It also highlights concerns about governance and regulation of the pilgrimage industry beyond the kingdom, raised <a href="https://hajj.leeds.ac.uk/industry/">in my own research</a> mapping the challenges of the Hajj sector in the UK.</p>
<h2>A changing political economy</h2>
<p>When the Saudis first took control of the Hijaz area of western Arabia – where Mecca is situated – in the 1920s, Hajj was the most significant source of revenue for the region. This financial dependence on Hajj ended in the years following the discovery of oil in the late 1930s. </p>
<p>As oil prices quintupled during the 1970s and international air travel became the norm, the Saudi rentier state increasingly deployed Hajj as part of its diplomacy beyond the Arab world. The House of Saud also demonstrated its largesse to the “guests of God” by expanding pilgrimage infrastructure as the number of overseas Hajjis expanded from <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/guests-of-god-9780195171075?cc=gb&lang=en&">100,000</a> per year in the mid-1950s to nearly 1 million, 20 years later. </p>
<p>Into the 1990s, however, global recession began to focus Saudi attention on the benefits of systematically commercialising pilgrimage despite the challenges of rapid modernisation for <a href="https://hajj.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/69/2019/08/Mapping-the-UK-Hajj-Sector-Full-Report.pdf#page=16">safety, heritage and the environment</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hajj-how-globalisation-transformed-the-market-for-pilgrimage-to-mecca-97888">Hajj: how globalisation transformed the market for pilgrimage to Mecca</a>
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<h2>A bid for pilgrim-tourists</h2>
<p>The Saudi government has sought to offer pilgrims improved transport, accommodation, retail and other pilgrimage-related services by partnering with international private investors. During the past decade <a href="https://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-4802-10-ksa-projects-you-should-be-involved-in">US$8.5 billion</a> has been invested in the new King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah and the Haramain high-speed railway, which connects Mecca and Medina to the new airport.</p>
<p>Even so, <a href="https://vision2030.gov.sa/en#">Vision 2030</a>, launched in 2016 by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, represents a revolution in Saudi Arabia’s plans to open up the kingdom. Extremely ambitious targets were set to more than double current Hajj numbers to around 6 million a year – and Umrah to 30 million annually – by 2030. </p>
<p>In 2019, Umrah numbers reached <a href="https://www.stats.gov.sa/sites/default/files/umrah_2019_e-15-3_kp.pdf">20 million</a> with Saudi Arabia launching a new tourist e-visa the same year. Notably, single Muslim women can use this visa to complete the pilgrimage without the usual <em>mahram</em> (male relative). Umrah takes just half a day and it can easily be included in itineraries including the Red Sea coast and the ruins at Al-‘Ula.</p>
<p>Vision 2030 is especially focused on the global Muslim middle-classes with disposable incomes. As my <a href="https://hajj.leeds.ac.uk/industry/">own research</a> showed, costs across the pilgrimage industry have been driven up by marketisation. Between 2013-18 the price of all packages had risen by around <a href="https://hajj.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/69/2019/08/Mapping-the-UK-Hajj-Sector-Full-Report.pdf#page=28">25%</a>. In 2018 even an “economy” Hajj package from the UK cost more than <a href="https://hajj.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/69/2019/08/Mapping-the-UK-Hajj-Sector-Full-Report.pdf#page=28">£4,000</a> (US$5,000). </p>
<h2>Hajj tourism regulation</h2>
<p>Speaking on a <a href="http://cbhuk.org/news/cbhuk-news/hajj-2020-update-webinar/">Council of British Hajjis</a> webinar in late June, an imam reminded disappointed pilgrims that Muslims are rewarded even for the religious intention of making Hajj. </p>
<p>But given the unprecedented late cancellation of millions of Hajj packages in 2020, business relations between suppliers and customers along transnational pilgrimage chains will undoubtedly be fraught for months – and possibly years.</p>
<p>Muslims worldwide are now wondering whether the 2021 pilgrimage will go ahead as before if they defer their package by a year. There is also a question about what quota each country will receive, if global demand doubles. And in <a href="https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/06/coronavirus-what-it-means-for-your-travel-insurance/#COVID">many cases</a>, travel insurance will not now cover COVID-19-related issues. </p>
<p>Even in Europe, where travellers are due refunds <a href="http://cbhuk.org/news/general-news/hajj-2020-guidance-if-cancelled/">under EU law</a>, cashflow problems mean that some Hajj travel agents are seeking to defer refunds until 2021. In the UK, some agencies have not issued the <a href="https://www.caa.co.uk/atol-protection/">necessary certificates</a> to pilgrims – which offer protection should providers go out of business – or have <a href="https://hajj.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/69/2019/08/Mapping-the-UK-Hajj-Sector-Full-Report.pdf#page=32">fraudulently advertised</a> that they are covered. </p>
<p>The fallout of COVID-19 will magnify challenges that the Muslim pilgrimage industry was already confronting. The <a href="https://hajj.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/69/2019/08/Mapping-the-UK-Hajj-Sector-Full-Report.pdf#page=44">lack of professionalism and compliance</a> among some Saudi-licensed Hajj organisers is exacerbated by <a href="https://hajj.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/69/2019/08/Mapping-the-UK-Hajj-Sector-Full-Report.pdf#page=38">inconsistent approaches to regulation and enforcement</a>. What’s needed is more effective self-governance by the pilgrimage industry, as well as more transparent and better co-ordinated communication between pilgrims, travel companies as well as the Saudi and other authorities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Seán McLoughlin has received funding to support his research on the organisation of Hajj from the Arts and Humanities Research Council/British Museum (2011-12), the British Academy (2013-14), the Economic and Social Research Council (2018-19) and Research England (2019-20).
His report, Mapping the UK's Hajj Sector: Moving Towards Communication and Consensus, was launched in 2019 at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hajj and Umrah at Westminster.</span></em></p>Expanding pilgrimage is a key part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 – COVID-19 has put that on hold.Seán McLoughlin, Professor of the Anthropology of Islam, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1359002020-04-23T12:10:49Z2020-04-23T12:10:49ZHajj cancellation due to coronavirus is not the first time plague has disrupted this Muslim pilgrimage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343589/original/file-20200623-188921-1mmj4wx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5742%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muslim pilgrims at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca, February 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/muslim-pilgrims-wear-masks-at-the-grand-mosque-in-saudi-news-photo/1203962527?adppopup=true">Photo by Abdel Ghani Bashir/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Saudi Arabia has effectively <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/22/881876215/saudi-arabia-announces-this-years-hajj-will-be-very-limited">canceled the hajj for most of the world’s Muslims</a>, saying the obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca will be “very limited” this year due to the coronavirus. Only pilgrims residing in Saudi Arabia may attend the event, which begins in late July.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, Saudi authorities <a href="https://time.com/5813644/saudi-arabia-hajj-postpone-coronavirus/">had indicated that this decision might be coming</a> and had also <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-fears-put-a-halt-to-the-muslim-pilgrimage-of-umrah-but-not-yet-the-hajj-132943">halted travel to holy sites as part of the umrah</a>, the “lesser pilgrimage” that takes place throughout the year.</p>
<p>A dramatically scaled down hajj will be a <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/coronavirus-thousands-of-muslims-in-limbo-as-saudi-arabia-bans-religious-pilgrimages">massive economic hit</a> for the country and many <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/03/16/news/massive-economic-losses-expected-if-covid-19-closes-down-hajj">businesses</a> globally, such as the hajj travel industry. <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-02-26/saudi-arabia-halts-travel-to-islams-holiest-site-over-virus">Millions of Muslims visit the Saudi kingdom</a> each year, and the pilgrimage has not been canceled since the founding of the Saudi Kingdom in 1932. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cQRzNv8AAAAJ&hl=en">as a scholar of global Islam</a>, I have encountered many instances in the more than 1,400-year history of the pilgrimage when its planning had to be altered due to armed conflicts, disease or just plain politics. Here are just a few.</p>
<h2>Armed conflicts</h2>
<p>One of the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/archive-editions/history/middle-east-history/records-hajj-documentary-history-pilgrimage-mecca?format=WW&isbn=9781852074302">earliest significant interruptions of the hajj</a> took place in A.D. 930, when a sect of Ismailis, a minority <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-shia-sunni-divide-78216">Shiite</a> community, known as <a href="https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/*-SIM_1997">the Qarmatians</a> raided Mecca because they believed the hajj to be a pagan ritual. </p>
<p>The Qarmatians were said to have killed scores of pilgrims and absconded with the black stone of the Kaaba – which Muslims believed was sent down from heaven. They took the stone to their stronghold in modern-day Bahrain. </p>
<p>Hajj was suspended until the Abbasids, a dynasty that ruled over a vast empire stretching across North Africa, the Middle East to modern-day India from A.D. 750-1258, <a href="https://books.google.de/books?id=E50rDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA123&lpg=PA123&dq=Mecca:+A+Literary+History+of+the+Muslim+Holy+Land+qarmatians&source=bl&ots=8LzR1Oe8-r&sig=ACfU3U2iLvRnR1YuuPrNNTkSD5hoWfIc4Q&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Mecca%3A%20A%20Literary%20History%20of%20the%20Muslim%20Holy%20Land%20qarmatians&f=false">paid a ransom for its return over 20 years later</a> </p>
<h2>Political disputes</h2>
<p>Political disagreements and conflict have often meant that pilgrims from certain places were kept from performing hajj because of lack of protection along overland routes into the Hijaz, the region in the west of Saudi Arabia where both Mecca and Medina are located.</p>
<p>In A.D. 983, <a href="https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01604632/document">the rulers of Baghdad and Egypt were at war</a>. The Fatimid rulers of Egypt claimed to be the true leaders of Islam and opposed the rule of the Abbasid dynasty in Iraq and Syria. </p>
<p>Their political tug-of-war kept various pilgrims from Mecca and Medina for eight years, until A.D. 991. </p>
<p>Then, during the fall of the Fatimids in A.D. 1168, Egyptians could not enter the Hijaz. It is also said that no one from Baghdad performed hajj for years after the city fell to Mongol invasion in A.D. 1258. </p>
<p>Many years later, <a href="https://books.google.de/books?hl=en&lr=&id=8rzGxWUQiKkC&oi=fnd&pg=PP10&dq=napoleon%27s+invasion+of+middle+east&ots=xOlA2E9Vgl&sig=rJRR505D6ImdPYhgHL-JQwQk3gw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">Napoleon’s military incursions aimed at checking British colonial influence in the region</a> prevented many pilgrims from hajj between A.D. 1798 and 1801. </p>
<h2>Diseases and hajj</h2>
<p>Much like the present, diseases and other natural calamities have also come in the way of the pilgrimage. </p>
<p>There are reports that <a href="https://blog.siasat.pk/40-times-when-hajj-was-cancelled-in-the-past/">the first time an epidemic of any kind caused hajj to be canceled was an outbreak of plague in A.D. 967</a>. And <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3e59/05c526e05a6a70ef731dcfc44ff10dc50ba9.pdf">drought and famine</a> caused the Fatimid ruler to cancel overland hajj routes in A.D. 1048.</p>
<p>Cholera outbreaks in <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(17)30454-1/fulltext">multiple years throughout the 19th century</a> claimed thousands of pilgrims’ lives during the hajj. One cholera outbreak in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in 1858 forced thousands of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30069613?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">Egyptians to flee to Egypt’s Red Sea border</a>, where they were quarantined before being allowed back in. </p>
<p>Indeed, for much of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, cholera remained a “<a href="https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=history_theses">perennial threat</a>” and caused frequent disruption to the annual hajj. </p>
<p>An outbreak of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/30069613.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Af28803d78a667edb15d40266150a6df8">cholera in India in 1831</a> claimed thousands of pilgrims’ lives on their way to perform hajj. </p>
<p>In fact, with many outbreaks in quick succession, the hajj was frequently interrupted throughout the mid-19th century.</p>
<h2>Recent years</h2>
<p>In more recent years, too, the pilgrimage has been disrupted for many similar reasons.</p>
<p>In 2012 and 2013 Saudi authorities encouraged the ill and the elderly not to undertake the pilgrimage amid concerns over <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/20/4/13-1708_article">Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS</a>. </p>
<p>Contemporary geopolitics and human rights issues have also played a role in who was able to perform the pilgrimage.</p>
<p>In 2017, <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/hajj-qataris-year-saudi-row-170825192148831.html">the 1.8 million Muslim citizens of Qatar were not able to perform the hajj</a> following the decision by Saudi Arabia and three other Arab nations to sever diplomatic ties with the country over differences of opinion on various geopolitical issues. </p>
<p>The same year, some Shiite governments such as Iran leveled charges <a href="http://www.alterinter.org/spip.php?article4502">alleging that Shiites were not allowed</a> to perform the pilgrimage by Sunni Saudi authorities.</p>
<p>In other cases, faithful Muslims <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/07/02/mohammed-bin-salman-is-making-muslims-boycott-mecca-hajj-islam-pilgrimage-saudi-arabia/">have called for boycotts</a>, citing Saudi Arabia’s <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-06-19/un-report-sees-credible-evidence-linking-saudi-crown-prince-khashoggi-murder">human rights</a> <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/yemen">record</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329187/original/file-20200420-152563-fw3vsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329187/original/file-20200420-152563-fw3vsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329187/original/file-20200420-152563-fw3vsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329187/original/file-20200420-152563-fw3vsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329187/original/file-20200420-152563-fw3vsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329187/original/file-20200420-152563-fw3vsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329187/original/file-20200420-152563-fw3vsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sanitary workers wearing protective face masks clean the Grand Mosque complex in Mecca on Feb. 27, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sanitary-workers-wearing-protective-face-masks-continue-to-news-photo/1203849601?adppopup=true">Haitham el-Tabei/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the decision to cancel the hajj will surely disappoint Muslims looking to perform the pilgrimage, many among them have been sharing online a relevant hadith – a tradition reporting the sayings and practice of the prophet Muhammad – that provides guidance about <a href="http://www.iupui.edu/%7Emsaiupui/071.sbt.html">traveling during a time of an epidemic</a>: “If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place.”</p>
<p><em>This story has been updated to reflect the latest developments.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135900/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ken Chitwood does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Saudi Arabia is barring international visitors for the hajj. A scholar explains a long history of disease, politics and war that have previously prevented people from making the journey to Mecca.Ken Chitwood, Lecturer, Concordia College New York | Journalist-fellow, USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture, Concordia College New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.