Essay On Religious Pilgrimage

The ritual of pilgrimage is not only reserved for religious individuals, but non-religious individuals are also performing it as well. This paper will discuss the ways in which religious and non-religious pilgrimage rituals are very similar in what they provide to society by drawing on the video clips “Vietnam wall stories” as well as the texts “The Janai Purnima Pilgrimage of the Tamang Shamans of Nepal” by Larry G. Peters and “Heartland of America: Memory, Motion and the Reconstruction of History on a Motorcycle Pilgrimage” by Jill Dubisch, as well as the text “Polaroids from Heaven” by Daniel Wojcik. .

Firstly, symbols play a very large role in all our lives regardless of our religious beliefs. In our day-to-day lives, symbols are around us in every direction we may look. We see traffic lights, colors, and scriptures and we automatically know what it represents because of previous knowledge that others have given it. We also tend to assign

Because these people are in need of strength, it is believed that pilgrimages bring people together and are successful in helping to heal a community. This belief in healing power is found in religious pilgrimages and the secular. In the Vietnam wall stories video, they mentioned how gathering at the wall was to help people cope with the loss of their friends and loved ones. It was meant to create a sense of closeness to those they were unable to be in touch with because they were not found or had passed on. It was also mentioned by Peters when he talks about the reason why shamans go on pilgrimage and this is to be given power and to perform healings of soul-calling for members of the community that are in need. (Peters, 2005) This shows that there is a strong belief that pilgrimages provide people with healing power whether the individuals are religious or