Land of the Pilgrims?

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From the beginning, Americans have taken a democratic approach to what qualifies as a pilgrimage site. Whether we're traveling to Walt Disney World or Williamsburg, Yellowstone or Yosemite, we spend $467 billion a year seeking transcendent experiences heavily packaged in the commercial.

As Sears put it, U.S. tourist attractions have "yoked the sacred and profane, the spiritual and the artificial, the profound and the superficial, the elite and the popular in a sometimes uneasy combination." We may not have St. Peter's in Rome or the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, but we love our Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and our Fly-Fishing Hall of Fame. If history can't supply the connection, Hollywood can: Iowa's tourism business is booming with pilgrims from all over the world who visit the baseball diamond from Field of Dreams and the covered bridges from The Bridges of Madison County. We even like our memorials to have a democratic face: We'll overlook the bronze equestrian statue of the famous general in favor of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where we can touch the names of thousands of ordinary men and women killed in the war.

Savvy tourist boards have caught on to this notion; they market everything from restaurant tours to treks to Native American lands as "pilgrimages." Each year more than 100,000 people join the Natchez Pilgrimage-a campy, costumed journey back in time to tour the antebellum homes of a Mississippi River town. For 47 years nature lovers have convened in the spring at Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the Annual Wildflower Pilgrimage. You can make a pilgrimage to Jim Morrison's grave in Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris (the video tour is just $9.95) or take the Judy Garland 25th Anniversary Pilgrimage Tour to Ferncliff Mausoleum and Cemetery (transportation provided by luxury minicoach).

Of course, these are not real pilgrimages. Traditional pilgrimages were long, arduous journeys made on foot, horseback, or sometimes bloody knees.

After years of preparation, the faithful left material comforts behind for a grueling trek over the Pyrenees to Santiago, a year-long journey to Jerusalem, or a 49-day trip from Canterbury to Rome. Those pilgrimages resonated powerfully because believers spent their entire lives steeped in the stories and images of their tradition. In return for fulfilling this spiritual obligation, they earned a strong renewal of faith and a solid reminder of how they should live.

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