Saudi Arabia is progressing with Vision 2030, an ambitious blueprint for economic variation, global connection, and improved quality of life. The Hajj pilgrimage is addressed by the Doyof Al Rahman Program (DARP), one of the vision's programs aiming to enhance the Hajj experience. The Hajj pilgrimage is one of the world's largest annual massive gatherings and it has already received increased attention from researchers combining elements of pilgrimage and tourism. This dissertation aims to explore Hajj service quality and pilgrims' satisfaction. To attain this objective, a narrative and systematic literature review was conducted to develop a framework with standardized dimensions for Hajj with the consideration of Vision's 2030 PEP program objectives. The conducted literature review considered 157 sources following the PRISMA review protocol in the analysis. A Delphi study distributed among fifteen experts processed the literature review findings to confirm the research instrument dimensions' priority, applicability, and clarity. The proposed dimensions were Hospitality, Guidance, Transportation, Hajj Facilities, Safety and security, and Healthcare. Those dimensions are dedicated to exploring Hajj Service Quality (HSQ) performance and its impact on the Hajj's overall satisfaction and willingness to extend visits to heritage sites. The dissertation connected a confirmatory mixed research method in the Delphi study and data collection phases. The research survey contained 83 items distributed through the Qualtrics platform and yielded 149 valid responses from 17 U.S. states. After the data preparation, a Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analytical approach was deployed. First, the measurement model inspected the reliability and validity of the model constructs. Second is the structural model that tested the study hypothesis with path analysis a regression-based technique. The findings showed a significant impact from all the applied HSQ dimensions on Hajj overall satisfaction and a significant impact from Hajj facilities on the willingness to extend the visit to heritage sites.

As a large-scale international cultural phenomenon, the Jerusalem pilgrimage must be approached comparatively. This project compares the pilgrimage accounts of two Germans and two Englishmen who travelled to Jerusalem in the second half of the long fifteenth century. The texts are those of William Wey, (written c.1470), Bernhard von Breydenbach (printed 1486), Arnold von Harff (written 1499) and the 'Pylgrymage of Sir Richard Guylforde', composed by his anonymous chaplain (printed 1511). Each chapter focuses on a pilgrim, and one of four thematic topics: genre, the religious other, curiosity and print. This project treats these works as literary texts which can be approached from the perspective of cultural history, rather than as historical sources. The project, therefore, is more a consideration of how the pilgrimage is represented than it is about the events of each pilgrimage, and so it looks at the pilgrimages created in writing. Pilgrimage writings tend to focus on Jerusalem's spiritual significance, rather than its worldly position. In this sense, textual representations of travel to Jerusalem represent something of a disconnect with travel to other physical destinations, and the conceptual space of pilgrimage will be of key significance to this thesis. This has implications for practice as well as writing, and therefore the thesis will address how the writers consider their journeys, as well as the idea of virtual pilgrimage. The thesis engages with questions of identity, and how it is presented, as well as the authors' relationship with their audiences. This necessitates analysing collective identity, as well as the different audiences for printed and manuscript texts. The most important research question, bringing together these issues, considers whether the authors' different geographical origins affect their self-presentation and understanding of pilgrimage. This leads to my central contention: that pilgrimage must be portrayed as a single, unified experience.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Tourism and Hospitality Management in the Faculty of Business at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2013 / This thesis is concerned with the service delivery received by pilgrims based in South Africa, especially with regards to services and amenities that were paid for and promised in the contract, but which may not have materialized. The focus on Hajj travelling can be viewed as an aspect of religious tourism (so to speak). Currently there is a dearth of research on this particular spiritual journey in South Africa. For this reason, this research aims to elucidate the service delivery components, processes and challenges. The researcher finds it necessary to research this topic because pilgrimage constitutes part of religious tourism and the policies governing the Hajj industry, as well as the operational aspects of the Hajj industry are unclear. Problems such as poor service standards, lack of business ethics and malpractice exist in the Hajj industry. The main challenges in the South African Hajj industry are: a) Lack of mainstream travel and tourism practices in the South African Hajj industry. b) Absence of a service and quality driven industry. c) Difficulty in acquisition of travel documentation for pilgrims. d) Lack of business ethics and malpractice by service providers. e) Limitations on travel through the newly introduced quota system by the Hajj Ministry of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). In 1994 the South African Government formed the South African Hajj and Umrah Council, (SAHUC) and is a nationally based constituted organisation. This organisation is officially recognised by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the official structure responsible and accountable for facilitating the affairs of the South African pilgrims within South Africa and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (SAHUC, 2005). The researcher intends on addressing the above-mentioned challenges through developing a service delivery framework that will help alleviate the problems in the industry between South African Hajj role players. The framework is aimed at identifying current gaps between supply and demand in the Hajj industry as well as providing recommendations for the future.

The present dissertation has as object of study the pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Divina Pastora, which happens in the city with name similar to the Saint, located in the state of Sergipe. Had as goal analyze, through ethnographic study, the ritualistic and symbolic dimensions of this religious event, observing it as a ritual process, highlighting certain aspects of the system of representations, beliefs, values and ideas expressed not only through words but mainly through ritual actions performed by pilgrims. During the fieldwork, the achievement of direct observation and interviews allowed to reach an insertion densest at the practices and representations experienced by pilgrims. Thus, was possible to understand the motivations that prompted the devotees to leave in walk to meet their patron saint and the meanings attributed to their devotional act. For analysis of the rituals was used as reference the studies of Victor Turner. / A presente dissertação tem por objeto de estudo a peregrinação ao Santuário de Divina Pastora, que acontece no município de nome homólogo ao da Santa, localizado no Estado de Sergipe. Teve como objetivo analisar, por meio de estudo etnográfico, as dimensões simbólicas e ritualísticas do referido evento religioso, observando-o como um processo ritual, destacando certos aspectos do sistema de representações, crenças, valores e ideias expressos não somente através de discursos, mas, principalmente, através de ações rituais realizadas pelos peregrinos. No trabalho de campo a realização de observação direta e entrevistas permitiram alcançar uma inserção mais densa nas práticas e representações vivenciadas pelos peregrinos. Assim, foi possível compreender as motivações que instigaram os devotos a partir em caminhada ao encontro de seu santo protetor e os sentidos atribuídos ao seu ato devocional. Para análise dos rituais tomou-se como referência os estudos de Victor Turner.

Journeying to sacred places is an ancient yet contemporarily popular tradition in the Hindu society of India. At the outset of this thesis, the philosophical foundations and general patterns of pilgrimage practice in West Bengal, India, where fieldwork was conducted, are discussed. Case studies of three West Bengali pilgrimage centres — Tarakeswar, Navadvip and Tarapith, which are Śaiva, Vaiṣṇava and Śākta sacred places, respectively — reveal the considerable diversity in the regional pilgrimage tradition. In analysing each of these centres, ethnographic data on the social and economic organisation of specialised religious places, roles of sacred specialists, beliefs regarding the deities, patterns of ritual, and social characteristics and behaviour of pilgrims are presented. The literature on pilgrimage is reviewed in search of theoretical tools for the task of generalising about pilgrimage, inclusive of the evident diversity. Analysis and criticism of existing theories indicates that analysts have focused on limited aspects of pilgrimage practice which conform to disciplinary boundaries rather than seeking the patterned consistencies which define the full institution. Comparison of the three case studies reveals that the variation in religious patterns in the centres relates to wider traditions of religious culture in Bengal: the several strands of pilgrimage tradition generally replicate the sub-traditions of Bengali Hinduism and patterns of belief and practice in any sacred place are closely associated with the religious tradition of the regional cult which dominates that centre. It is possible, however, to identify two levels at which the diversity of the pilgrimage institution is founded in systematic conceptual unity. Both levels concern the meaning of pilgrimage within prevalent patterns of Bengali Hinduism. The explicit meaning of pilgrimage in the conscious thought of participants emphasises the journey to the deity's terrestrial abode in search of interaction with the divine. Implicit within this patterned behaviour are important Hindu metaphysical concepts — the implicit ideology of pilgrimage — which invest pilgrimage with meaning derived from abstract Hindu religious thought.

The American author Jane Goodwin Austin published 24 novels and numerous short stories in a variety of genres between 1859 and 1892. Austin’s most popular works focus on her Pilgrim ancestors, and she is often lauded as a notable scholar of Puritan history who carefully researched her subject matter; however, several of the most common myths about the Pilgrims seem to have originated in Austin’s fiction. As a writer who saw her work as her means of entering the public sphere and enacting social change, Austin championed women and religious diversity. The range of Austin’s oeuvre, her coterie of notable friendships, especially amongst New England elites, and her impact on American myth and culture make her worthy of in-depth scholarly study, yet, inexplicably, very little critical work exists on Austin. This dissertation provides the most comprehensive biography of Austin to date, compiled largely from archival sources, and examines two of her novels, the 1865 Dora Darling: Daughter of the Regiment, one of the only Civil War-era adventure novels featuring a young girl who engages directly in the war, and the 1889 Standish of Standish, a carefully researched novel of the first few years of the Pilgrim’s Plymouth settlement, based on primary sources, popular culture, and family lore.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:38:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Karla Daniele de Sa Maciel Luz.pdf: 1581091 bytes, checksum: 78d24da03f234b47b12b5206aa009f8d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-03 / With the passage of time, religion, in its vast gamut of meanings has piqued, and continues to increasingly pique the interest of researchers from the most varied areas of study. One of these areas is psychoanalysis, starting with Freud himself. His work provides us with countless contributions to the understanding of this phenomenon, religion. His contributions range from a more scientific discourse, to a discourse of an analytical nature, to new ways of theorizing about religious experience. Some aspects of popular religiosity, for example, have been highlighted as subjects of research, by both psychology and psychoanalysis. Among the various manifestations of popular piety, we have here in Brazil the pilgrims of Padre (Father) Cicero. This manifestation is characterized by pilgrimages and worship of the image of the priest Padre Cicero Romão Batista, by people from the backlands of the Northeast. Every year, at certain times, crowds of people head for the city of Juazeiro for the blessings of Padim Ciço , as they call him. The objective of this study was to investigate the psychological processes underlying the religious beliefs of the pilgrims and devotees of Padre Cicero to the extent that these were known. This study was conducted by observation through participation and by collecting testimonies, which were put into dialogue with the support of Freudian metapsychology theory. This research enabled the construction of reflections on transference in the process of research in psychoanalysis, understanding of the representation of familiar figures in religious emblems and the subliminal process of drives as related to the experience of faith. With this method we sought not only to better understand the psychic organization when influenced by religious experience, but to also reflect on both research in psychoanalysis and phenomena in Brazilian culture / Ao longo da história, a religião, com sua gama de significados, despertou e vem despertando, cada vez mais, o interesse de pesquisadores das mais variadas áreas, incluindo a psicanálise, começando mesmo com o próprio Freud. Sua obra nos oferece inúmeras contribuições para a compreensão de tal fenômeno. Tais contribuições vão desde um discurso mais científico, passando por um discurso de ordem analítica, até novas maneiras de teorizar acerca da experiência religiosa. Alguns aspectos da religiosidade popular, por exemplo, vêm se destacando enquanto objetos de investigação, seja da psicologia seja da psicanálise. Dentre as mais variadas manifestações da religiosidade popular, temos, aqui no Brasil, os romeiros de Padre Cícero. Essa manifestação caracteriza-se pela peregrinação e culto à imagem do Padre Cícero Romão Batista, pelo povo oriundo do sertão nordestino. Todos os anos, em períodos específicos, a multidão ruma para a cidade de Juazeiro do Norte em busca das bênçãos do Padim Ciço, assim por eles denominado. Desse modo, este trabalho objetivou investigar os processos psíquicos subjacentes à crença religiosa dos romeiros e devotos de Padre Cícero, na medida em que esses se faziam conhecidos. Tal estudo foi realizado por meio da observação participante e da coleta de depoimentos, os quais foram postos em diálogo com os aportes teóricos da metapsicologia freudiana. Essa investigação possibilitou a construção de reflexões sobre a transferência no processo de pesquisa em psicanálise, como também a compreensão da representação das figuras familiares nas insígnias religiosas, passando pelo processo sublimatório das pulsões frente à experiência de fé. Com isso, pretendeu-se conhecer melhor a organização psíquica quando marcada pela experiência religiosa, como também refletir sobre investigação em psicanálise e fenômenos da cultura brasileira

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 227-245). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.