Nocturnal ritual activities in tourist development of pilgrimage cities

ABSTRACT

Dusk and dawn are important times in Catholic sacred places. Some shrines are famous for their nocturnal activities, including torchlight processions, prayer vigils, and late-night or dawn services. For pilgrims, a day does not necessarily end at nightfall and often begins before dawn. In pilgrimage cities, both religious and tourist authorities have renewed traditional nocturnal rituals, which are often promoted as intensely spiritual and unique tourist experiences. The discussion below asks how these nocturnal practices differ from the current offer in terms of night tourism. Nocturnal life, as currently understood, applies mainly to capital cities and is essentially based upon festive practices and leisure, providing what might then be seen as ‘artificial’ pleasures. This paper, based on fieldwork conducted in fifteen Catholic shrines (in Europe and Mexico), focuses on three examples: the nocturnal Marian procession of Lourdes (France), the case of Lyon Festival of Lights, and a recent project called ‘The 25th Hour’ conducted by the Association of the Shrine Towns of France. These examples are used to examine the link between tourist experiences, debates about authenticity, and the night, and considers nocturnal ritual practices as powerful assets for promoting a new type of cultural night tourism in both smaller and world cities.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourism
• pilgrimage
• authenticity
• emotions
• development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Religious tourism is defined by Gisbert Rinschede (1992, p. 52) as “that type of tourism whose participants are motivated either in part or exclusively for religious reasons”.

2 A canonical procedure of authentication of supernatural events was initiated by the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and clarified in 1978 in an official document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

3 After a last minute cancellation in 2015, the Festival returned in 2016 but with a reduced perimeter, in order to reinforce security faced with terrorism.

4 The flame is a symbol of the victory of light over darkness, as Christ was victorious over death. It also symbolizes the believer’s faith as a guiding light in darkness and the fragility of this faith which could alternatively be blown out but also rekindled.