Pilgrims' play on the Santiago Way

The popularity of the walking pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela across Northern Spain is often understood as a new kind of spiritual tourism rather than a revival of religious practice. In order to examine this claim, I explore common symbolic and ritual practices on the trail such as rock placin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The international journal of religious tourism and pilgrimage
Main Author: Moulin-Stozek, Daniel (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Dublin Institute of Technology [2019]
In: The international journal of religious tourism and pilgrimage
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Camino de Santiago / Ritual / Role-play / Spiritual experience
IxTheo Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AG Religious life; material religion
CB Christian life; spirituality
KBH Iberian Peninsula
Further subjects:B Play
B Camino de Santiago
B Pilgrimage
B Ritual
B Sacred
B eisure
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
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Description
Summary:The popularity of the walking pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela across Northern Spain is often understood as a new kind of spiritual tourism rather than a revival of religious practice. In order to examine this claim, I explore common symbolic and ritual practices on the trail such as rock placing, message making, role playing, and partaking in communal play activities. I elaborate the concept of play to explain these behaviors and consider how they relate to transcendental and sacred meanings. This analysis has important implications for explaining the current popularity of the Camino. In particular, it helps explain how the same ritual and symbolic acts may be shared by diverse people with diverse motivations, and how contemporary ritual practices may relate and reengage with imaginaries of the pilgrimage of the past.
ISSN:2009-7379
Contains:Enthalten in: The international journal of religious tourism and pilgrimage
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.21427/ZFQ1-XQ84