A token of gratitude
Many people pray to God for help in times of illness or crisis. They often promise to give a gift to God – a visible sign of the help they hope to receive. This gift is called a votive offering. The offering may resemble the part of the body that is affected by the illness and can also be given after health has been restored.
On the day of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, 25th March, many people make a pilgrimage to the magnificent church Our Lady of Tinos on an island in the Aegean Sea. Some pilgrims crawl the final metres on their knees before kissing the glass that protects the painting of the Virgin Mary. And as they have promised, the pilgrims leave the votive offerings they have brought to the icon that has performed so many miracles. For this reason, numerous votive offerings are suspended from the ceiling in front of the icon in Greek Orthodox churches.
These votive offerings from Greece have been collected by, and are on loan from Terje Storli. In this corner of Europe, pilgrimages and votive offerings have gone together ever since antiquity.
Ave, Maria!
The mountain village of Lourdes in southern France is visited by five million pilgrims every year. They come in the hope of receiving help from St. Bernadette and the Virgin Mary in times of illness and crisis. Trains accommodating bed-ridden patients arrive at the railway station, while the village hotels are adapted for those in need of nursing care. Pilgrims in wheelchairs are given first place in the queue at the sacred spring.
In 1858, a peasant girl named Bernadette reported having seen a young woman at the entrance to a grotto. This woman was clothed in white and blue, and two golden roses lay at her feet. In her hand was a rosary, a string of beads used by many when they pray. This mystical woman revealed that she was the Virgin Mary and asked Bernadette to drink water from a spring by the grotto. When the water was found to have healing powers, Lourdes’ reputation spread quickly. Although the church was initially sceptical, believers began to make pilgrimages to Lourdes.
Today Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879) is an official Catholic saint. The influx of pilgrims to Lourdes is reminiscent of pilgrimages of the sick during the Middle Ages, but also has aspects of modern mass tourism.
Our Lady of Fatima
The Virgin Mary and the Rosary are also vital to the city of Fatima, Portugal. In 1917 the Virgin Mary was said to have appeared to three children who were herding sheep. A woman emanating rays of light reminded them to say the Rosary every day. Drawn by stories of healing and mystical visions, thousands of people visited the heights outside Fatima the same year. In 1930 the Catholic Church officially recognized these apparitions as worthy of belief. Every year millions of pilgrims visit Fatima and the Basilica of the Rosary.
The oldest pilgrimage tradition in the world?
For several thousand years Hindus have sought out holy sites by rivers, mountains and temples to get closer to God. A Hindu pilgrimage site is called a tirtha – which really means ford - a place where you cross a river. Humans and gods, earth and heaven, death and rebirth meet at these crossing points.
Some Hindus make pilgrimages to famous places such as the city of Varanasi on the River Ganges. Bathing in the holy river can purify the soul and result in a better life after reincarnation. Dying here, or having your ashes spread on the Ganges, can even mean that you are released from the continuous cycle of reincarnation.
Some Hindus are pilgrims all their lives, constantly on the move between the hundreds of holy places in India. Others visit local temples and shrines. Many Hindus in Norway make pilgrimages of this kind when they are on vacation in India and Sri Lanka.
A Hindu temple is the dwelling of one or more gods. A pilgrim visits the gods in the temple, prays to them and brings them flowers and gifts. In return, pilgrims hope to receive help in their daily lives, perhaps to do well at school or to recover from illness.
Modern transportation has increased the opportunities for pilgrimages in India. A few years ago, 70 million Hindus visited the pilgrimage festival Kumbh Mela in the city of Allahabad.
