Rite Of Passage To Disneyland Essay

Today Disneyland has become of the top places in the world to visit. Some highly devoted visitors buy annual passes to be able to visit year round and view it as a rite of passage. A rite of passage is defined by Guest in his book Cultural Anthropology, as “a category of ritual that enacts a change os status from one life to another, either for an individual or a group”. Some believe visiting disneyland is a rite of passage because having their kids be able to go through the childhood experience that they had as a child is something important to them. They encourage their children to take the grandchildren also to Disneyland and have that same experience of being at “the happiest place on earth”. Their childhood memories of being able to have a day or a couple of “magical” experiences means so much to many people since their experiences are with them for the rest of their lives. For many, it is a part of their family tradition to take their children for their birthday to celebrate at Disneyland and come from all over the world to visit. They need its necessary to pass it down from generation to generation as a traditional pilgrimage and make the effort to travel by either car or plane and plan a

trip to a place which has a ton of significance to many people.

A trip to “The Happiest Place on Earth” has become a pilgrimage of personal significance for many.

When people go on religious pilgrimages, they make sure and stop at important sites in regard to their religion to venerate and pay homage to these sites. According to Guest, a pilgrimage is, “ a religious journey to a sacred place as a sign or denotation and in search of transformation and enlightenment. When people go to Disneyland, people make sure to visit certain parts of the park they think are special either because they are famous or are special to them for some certain reason. For example, some visit the Walt Disney Statue with Mickey next to him since its symbolic to Disney. Some visit their favorite ride because it brings them back memories of their

childhood.
Visiting Tomorrowland at Disney can be viewed by some as a pilgrimage ritual when visiting the theme park. It is very popular since it has many innovation from earlier times and they keep adding more for it to be up to date in innovations. Many people who visit Disneyland feel that seeing these innovations brings them a sense of what the future might be like and how far we have come along through out the years which in a sense can be a religious pilgrimage and seeing a place or site which gives them a sense of purpose. Guest says, “The pilgrimage journey… involves the same process of separation, liminality, and reincorporation associated with other rites of passage”.Today we have many different religions as well as many who do not practice any religion but commit to vacations in search of becoming at peace without having any worries of work or other stressors which can be defined as a pilgrimage and or a rite of passage to families who take these vacations every year as a traditional experience.
We all can have our own definition of religious pilgrimage and have our own religion which can defer from person to person. That is why when someone says going to disneyland is their religious pilgrimage it can definitely be true. What someone sees personal significance and devotes their lives to it is totally up to them. Disneyland annual pass holders today devote days out of the year to visit what is known as “The Happiest Place on Earth”. If the world knows Disney as the happiest place on earth how can Disneyland not be compared to a scared place. According to anthropologist in Guest’s book, “rituals and rite of passages are so powerful across religions and cultures” and it is something which they constantly study around the world. Who defines what rituals and rite of passages belong to who is the people themselves. Wether it is visiting the city of Mecca or Disneyland people are going to have their own religious pilgrimages around the world have will be constantly changing through out time.