Some Basic Factors of Pilgrimage in Contemporary Serbia

Abstract

Pilgrimage tourism in Serbia represents a developed, yet highly unregulated activity. Seeing as official tourist organizations, the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) or the state take no part in its development, it mostly takes place within the “gray zone”. A lack of control over this activity leaves tour guides and organizers of pilgrimage tours with a lot of leeway in choosing the sacred places which will be visited and narratives utilized during the trips. This kind of “liberty” in (re)presentation is reflected in very uneven concepts of SOC sacred places among pilgrims, as well as in different religious practices in them. In this paper I will present the results of research conducted between 2013 and 2017 on pilgrimage tours in Serbia. The aim of the paper is to point out the most important traits of contemporary pilgrimage in Serbia – ways of organizing, the structure of pilgrim groups, the kinds of narratives used on these voyages, as well as the role and significance that pilgrimages had in the process of “spiritual growth” of traditional orthodox believers.