Pilgrimage

Chartres on the horizon (France)

In the Middle Ages, many people - both men and women - went on short or long pilgrimages. A pilgrimage is a trip you take to a famous religious place. Christians, Jews, and Muslims went on pilgrimages. Most people walked, and others rode horses or went in carts. The people in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are a group of pilgrims traveling together to the cathedral at Canterbury in England.

Pilgrimage badge from Canterbury
(of Thomas a Becket), England

Sometimes people went on short trips. From Paris, many Christian people walked for one or two days to Chartres, to see Mary's tunic that was there. Other times, people walked all summer, to get to the shrine of Saint Jacques at Compostela, in Spain. They had a good time, talking to the people they met on the road, and having adventures, as you do when you go on vacation today.

Pilgrimage badge from
St. Jacques de
Compostela, Spain

When you got there, you prayed at the church, and often people bought souvenirs to take home, to show where you had been. Sometimes the souvenirs were little metal medals you wore pinned to your hat or your scarf. Other times people brought back some holy water or oil from the shrine.

Karbala (ca. 1000 AD, Iraq)

Muslim people traveled on the haj, which was a pilgrimage to Mecca (in modern Saudi Arabia) to pray at the place where Mohammed went up to Heaven. Any Muslim who could afford it was supposed to go to Mecca at least once in his or her life. Shiites also went on shorter pilgrimages, to the shrine at Karbala (in modern Iraq), for instance.

Pilgrims set off to go to Mecca on the haj.

In the same way, Jewish people went on pilgrimages to Jerusalem, or to places where famous Jews like Maimonides had lived.

To find out more about pilgrimages, check out this book from Amazon.com or from your library:

Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction, by David Macaulay (1981). Beautiful drawings and clear text explain exactly how medieval craftsmen built a cathedral, from foundation to the stained glass windows. For kids.

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