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

symbols to objects to help associate them with a specific meaning and share them with people who are close to us. In the text by Peters, he says, ”Shiva gave shamans the white frock in the truth Era as the appropriate apparel to wear on pilgrimage because it is white and thus ritually pure (Peters, 2005: 206)”. This quote is implying that white is a symbol of purity. In the text by Dubisch, she says “ Motorcycles are seen by many who ride them as symbolizing important American values of freedom, self-reliance and individualism. (Dubisch, 2004: 106)”. In the video it was also evident that symbols were important to them because they included the dog tags on the motorcycle to represent the soldiers that were missing in action. These motorcycle drivers and those taking part in the pilgrimage are not performing a religious pilgrimage, however they also strongly believe in the use of symbolism just as those taking part in a religious pilgrimage. This shows that religious and non-religious pilgrimage rituals are very similar in what they provide to society
Secondly, there is always going to be people who are coping with loss when they lose a loved one or when they are going through a difficult period in their life.

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

not.
Lastly, Both religious pilgrimages and the secular have the usage of shrines in common when honoring their lost loved ones. In the text Polaroids from Heaven, Wojcik says “There they kneel or sit in folding lawn chairs and pray the rosary from 8:30 p.m. until 11:30 p.m., before an adorned five-foot statue of the Virgin Mary which stands on a modest slab of cement (Wojcik, 1996: 309)”. Of course this is what we expect to see when looking at the performance of a religious pilgrimage however, it is very similar to the video as well as the text about motorcycle pilgrimages when they say “ A group of Vietnam veterans decided to ride their motorcycles across the United States from California to Washington, DC, to visit the recently inaugurated Vietnam Veterans Memorial (‘the Wall)’ (Dubisch, 2004:108)”. Even though these veterans are not necessarily gathering at a religious shrine it is still considered a shrine because it is an area that is given out of respect to represent those who have lost their lives in battle.