Pilgrimage is one of the most widespread religious experiences in the world. In the most diverse traditions, men and women leave home to reach a sacred place and then return. At first sight it is a journey; on closer inspection it is a rite of passage, with a departure that separates, a road that suspends and a return that reintegrates into a new condition.
The reading of Victor and Edith Turner
In 1978 the anthropologists Victor and Edith Turner published Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture, a study of Christian pilgrimages. Their thesis was that pilgrimage represents, for adults in complex societies, what initiation represents in traditional societies: an experience of the threshold.
During the journey, they observed, the pilgrim:
- separates from routine, work and their usual social role;
- lives alongside strangers of every origin, in a condition of relative equality;
- experiences fatigue, simplicity and the unexpected;
- reaches a sacred centre that often lies far from the centres of political power.
It is a form of communitas, the egalitarian bond that arises outside social structure. Unlike tribal rites, however, pilgrimage is voluntary: for this reason the Turners placed it between traditional liminality and modern "liminoid" experiences.
The road to Santiago
The pilgrimage to the tomb of the apostle James at Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia, was among the most important of the European Middle Ages, together with those to Rome and Jerusalem.
Departure
In the Middle Ages departure had a ritual form. There were liturgical formulas for the blessing of the scrip and staff, the pilgrim's bag and walking stick. The traveller thus received, in church, the objects of his new state. Often before leaving one made a will and settled debts: the pilgrim left his life behind as though he might not return.
The road
The Codex Calixtinus, a twelfth-century collection devoted to Saint James, contains a famous guide for pilgrims, describing the routes, stages, shrines, rivers and even the peoples encountered along the way. Hospitals and hospices along the roads welcomed those on the journey.
The sign of return
The best-known symbol of the pilgrimage to Santiago is the scallop shell, gathered on the coasts of Galicia or bought at the shrine. The pilgrim wore it on his hat or cloak on the way home: it was the visible sign that the journey had been accomplished. Today the shrine still issues a certificate, the Compostela, to those who have covered a minimum distance on foot, on horseback or by bicycle.
The hajj and the state of ihram
In the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, the hajj, the threshold dimension is particularly evident. Before entering the sacred area, the pilgrim assumes the state of ihram, a condition of consecration.
The signs of ihram
- Men wear two unsewn white cloths, one around the waist and one over the shoulders; women wear simple, modest clothing.
- Everyone, rich and poor, thus looks alike: differences of rank and origin are covered over.
- During ihram precise prohibitions apply: among others, not cutting hair or nails, not using perfume, not hunting, abstaining from marital relations.
Leaving ihram
At the end of the main rites, men shave their heads or shorten their hair, and women cut a small lock. This is the gesture that marks the exit from the state of consecration. Those who have completed the hajj are often addressed on their return with the title hajji, a public sign of the new condition.
The common pattern
| Stage | Santiago | Hajj |
|---|---|---|
| Separation | Blessing of scrip and staff, will | Entry into the state of ihram |
| Margin | The road, the hospices, shared hardship | White garments, prohibitions, rites at the holy sites |
| Aggregation | Scallop shell, certificate, return home | Cutting of hair, title of hajji |
The meaning of the journey
In both traditions the sacred place is the destination, but the road has a value of its own. It is in fatigue, in stripping down and in living alongside other pilgrims that the transformation takes place. The return is not a mere homecoming: whoever returns brings back a sign and a new identity recognised by the community.
In short
- Pilgrimage displays the complete structure of a rite of passage.
- Victor and Edith Turner interpreted it as a voluntary liminal experience of adults.
- At Santiago departure was marked by the blessing of scrip and staff, return by the scallop shell.
- In the hajj the state of ihram makes pilgrims equal and imposes precise prohibitions.
- Cutting the hair marks the exit from ihram and the return to ordinary life.
