Oh Come All Ye Faithful

What the heck is a pilgrimage anyway? Bunches of people go on a long hike to a far-off place where they hope to get healed and blessed and see miracles occur. Sounds like a trip to Wrigley Field during Cubs season.

Every year, thousands of "believers" of every size, shape and color flock to places like Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Western Wall, Lourdes, and other such locales purported to hold the power to heal the sick and despairing. Millions of believers flock to Fatima, Portugal hoping to see a vision of the Blessed Virgin, the Beautiful Lady of Heaven who can heal all ills and bless the rich and poor alike.

Pilgrimages to sacred sites are common aspects of just about every religion, from the Muslims annual trek to Mecca, the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad for the six-day hajj; to the yearly gathering of Wiccans and Pagans in the woodlands to celebrate the Summer Solstice; to the Christian devotees who go en masse to Santiago de Compostela in the far north of Spain to see ancient relics of St.James. In Japan, nature-loving Shintoists climb the sacred Mount Fuji to pay homage to the powerful mountain God, Sengen-Saga. So many people crowd the mountain during June through September that Japanese officials are often forced to close the area down to tourists. Jerusalem's Western Wall, formerly the Wailing Wall, attracts believers, historians, seekers and tourists and Buddhists converge on a massive temple rising out of the jungles of Java as dying Hindus journey to Varanasi to await their final moments of death in ritual celebration. All of these sites are rich in religious history and a spiritual legacy that continues on, even in this age of nuclear energy and the Internet. Holy places are considered the world's first tourist destinations and today still serve as highly frequented ports of call to mystical seekers of every tradition, all whom come seeking the God, or Goddess, of their belief.

Sometimes people find the journey takes them closer to home. Not more than a few months go by when we don't hear about some sighting of the Virgin Mary on a pancake, or the apparition of Jesus on a tortilla, or the face of Angel Gabriel peering from the side of some old guy's John Deere tractor. These sightings, common mainly in heavily Catholic countries, always result in throngs of believers creating a pilgrimage to stare down someone's toilet bowl in hopes of seeing the Angel Gabriel waving back.

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