Ealing Agreed Syllabus: guidance for teachers

Unit title: Journeys (Pilgrimage)

Learning objectives Suggested activities Suggested resources

Special journeys

AT1 To understand that people make special journeys to places of significance.

Starter: In pairs or small groups, get pupils to share photos and experiences of trips to special places, e.g. holidays, football match, theatre performances.

Development:

1) Play a piece of relaxing music. Ask pupils to imagine they are in a wonderful place. Can they imagine how it looks, feels, sounds and smells?

2) Ask pupils to open their eyes and imagine they are going on a journey to the wonderful place. How would they prepare physically, mentally?

3) Stop the music, and get pupils to plan and write about their imaginary journey, basing it on favourite journeys they have already made. Lower-attaining pupils should be provided with a writing frame to guide them.

Conclusion: Introduce the word ‘pilgrim’ and ‘pilgrimage’, and get class to suggest examples. Point out that some pilgrimages are ‘religious’ whereas others are not (e.g. a pilgrimage back to an old home or country of origin.)

Photos/brochures of places visited by members of the class.

Relaxing music

Journeys (Pilgrimage) 1

Learning objectives Suggested activities Suggested resources

Hajj 1

AT1Pupils understand why Muslims make a special journey to a place of religious significance.

Starter: Briefly introduce the Hajj as a Muslim pilgrimage. Discuss why Muslims go on this pilgrimage and what it means to them.

Development:

1) Pupils research the Hajj using the internet and reference books. They keep notes on why Muslims go on a Hajj and record some of its key features ready for the next lesson.

2) Pupils look up where Mecca is on world map, and talk about how a Muslim from Britain might travel there.

3) Discuss the Hajj with pupils. How do Muslims prepare for the Hajj? How do they feel during it? What must it be like to be in such a crowd? What must it be like to not think of worldly goods? What might they wear?

The Muslim Council of Britain has produced a wonderful collection of resources for teaching Islam, including a pack on the Hajj: Id-ul-Adha and the Hajj

http://www.mcb.org.uk/booksforschools.php

Folens RE in Action, Book 5, Susan Smart, ISBN 1 84303 794 7

Internet

Hajj 2

AT1Pupils understand some of the feelings experienced by Muslims going on the Hajj.

AT2Pupils think about their own feelings in relation to journeys to special places.

Starter: Collate all the information discovered in the previous lesson. Write the key aspects on the board. Fill in any gaps in this information.

Development:

1) Collaboratively write a paragraph explaining the Hajj and its significance to Muslims.

2) Ask pupils to continue writing about the Hajj, particularly from the point of view of believers.

Conclusion: Discuss the festival of Eid-ul-Adha, which occurs at the end of the Hajj, relating it to sacrifices made in order to make the journey.

Folens Religious Education Teachers Resource Book 4, ISBN 1 85276 649 2

Journeys (Pilgrimage) 2

Learning objectives Suggested activities Suggested resources

Pilgrimage to Lourdes

AT1Pupils understand that Christians make special journeys to places of religious significance.

Starter: Read an account of Bernadette’s vision of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes.

Development:

1) Discuss why some Christians continue to go to Lourdes.

2) Talk about what we do when we are sick. Ask if any of the children have used alternative therapies.

Conclusion: Pupils work in groups to plan a pilgrimage to Lourdes. Whom would they take? How would they get there? How long would it take? How much would it cost? Where would they stay? What are their expectations? Report back to class.

Story of Bernadette: http://re-xs.ucsm.ac.uk/re/pilgrimage/lourdes.htm

In the footsteps of St Bernadette:http://www.lourdes-france.org/index.php?goto_centre=ru&contexte=en&id=423&id_rubrique=423

Buddhist pilgrimages

AT1Pupils understand that Buddhists make special journeys to places of religious significance.

AT2Pupils understand why pilgrimages to their own special places are important to them.

Starter: Talk about how believers can get closer to the founder of their religion by walking in their footsteps, so to speak: for example, following the stations of the cross.

Development:

1) Discuss the four main sites of pilgrimage for Buddhists (see background information): Lumbini in Nepal: the Buddha’s birthplace Bodh Gaya: the place of his enlightenment Varanasi: the site of his first sermon Kusinara: the site of his death.

2) Show photographs of these places, or visit them on a website, and discuss why these places are significant to Buddhists today.

Conclusion: Pupils are to reflect upon—and record their thoughts—about a place that is special to them. They should include why this place is special to them and their thoughts and feelings about it.

For a short video on Buddhist pilgrimage (see background info):

http://content.lgfl.org.uk/secure/faiths/t2_faiths/buddhism/video_pilgrimage.html#

For more information about the four main pilgrimage sites:

http://www.buddhist-temples.com/buddhist-pilgrimage.html

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Learning objectives Suggested activities Suggested resources

Pilgrim’s progress

AT2Pupils use knowledge gained of pilgrimages in role-play and drama.

In groups, pupils select a pilgrimage to act out. They plan and prepare their roles and practise and perform their versions to the class. They make suitably symbolic badges or tokens out of cardboard as remembrances (souvenirs) of their pilgrimage (see background information).

Cardboard, coloured pens.

Key words Pilgrimages, Muslim, Makkah, Eid-ul-Adha, Hajj, Christian, Lourdes, Buddhist, Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Varanasi, Kusinara.

Outcomes

At the end of this unit, most pupils will:

Know why people make pilgrimages. Recall details of religious pilgrimages and their own special journeys.

Some pupils will have made less progress and will:

Name some religious pilgrimages. Recall some details of religious pilgrimages. Recall their own special journeys.

Some pupils will have made more progress and will:

Understand the spiritual and moral implications to the individual undertaking a religious pilgrimage. Relate these to their own personal journeys.

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Background information

Pilgrimage(woodcut c1490)

For in their hearts doth Nature stir them soThen people long on pilgrimage to goAnd palmers to be seeking foreign strandsTo distant shrines renowned in sundry lands. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales

According to the dictionary, the word pilgrimage derives from the Latin peligrinus, meaning foreigner or wayfarer, referring to the journey of a person who travels to a shrine or holy place. However another older, more poetic derivation finds the roots of the word in the Latin per agrum: ‘through the field’, an image suggesting perhaps a curious soul who walks beyond known boundaries.

Stoning the devil, Mina

We gave him news of a gentle son. And when [Ishma’il] reached the age when he could work with him his father said to him: “My son, I dreamt that I was sacrificing you. Tell me what you think.”

He replied: “Father, do as you are bidden. Allah willing, you shall find me faithful.” And when they had both surrendered themselves to Allah’s will, and Ibrahim had laid down his son prostrate upon his face, We called out to

him saying: “Ibrahim, you have fulfilled your vision.” Thus did we reward the righteous. That was indeed a bitter test. We ransomed his son with a noble sacrifice and bestowed on him the praise of later generations…”

(Qu’ran 37:101-109)

Thus does the Qu’ran tell the story of Ibrahim’s willingness to obey Allah and sacrifice his son—in the Muslim version, Ishma’il rather than Ishak (Isaac). Muslims remember this on Eid-ul-Adha, the chief observance of which is the sacrifice of an animal in commemoration of the lamb sent by Allah to take the place of Ishma’il. The community demonstrates charity (zakat, one of the five pillars of Islam) by the distribution of one-third of the meat to the poor, the rest to be shared by family and friends.

The festival is observed at the end of the Hajj or yearly pilgrimage to Mekka. However it is celebrated by all Muslims, not only those performing the Hajj. The village of Mina, a few miles from Mekka, is the site of three pillars which are stoned in a symbolic rejection of the devil, one of the rituals of the Hajj. This village also plays host to scores of butchers who arrange for the halal slaughter of the sacrificial animals on the pilgrims’ behalf. Each Muslim, as they celebrate the festival of sacrifice, remind themselves of their own submission to Allah, and their own willingness to sacrifice.

Eid-ul-Adha starts with a special holiday prayer, performed in congregation in the masjid (mosque) or other suitable place. Fasting is prohibited during the four days of the observance: it is a time of celebration, of visiting family and friends and of thanking Allah.

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Bernadette Soubirous

Bernadette Soubirous (7 January 1844 – 16 April 1879) was a shepherd girl from the town of Lourdes in southern France. In 1858, she reported eighteen apparitions of ‘a lady’(later identified as the Virgin Mary), claims that were declared “worthy of belief” by the Catholic Church; in 1933 she was canonized as a saint.

From March to October every year the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is the target of mass pilgrimages from Europe and other parts of the world. The spring water from the grotto is believed by some to possess healing properties, and Lourdes is noted for attracting the sick and infirm. An estimated 200 million people have visited the shrine since 1860, and the Catholic Church has officially recognised 67 ‘miracle’ healings that have apparently occurred as a result of making this journey.

Tours from all over the world are organised to visit the sanctuary in impressive candlelight processions, and part of the pilgrimage for many is drinking or bathing in the water from the spring.

Statue of Virgin Mary Lourdes grotto

Ashoka pillarLumbini

Buddhist pilgrimage sites: Lumbini, the place of his birth

Lumbini (Sanskrit for ‘the lovely’) is situated at the foothills of the Himalayas in modern Nepal. In the Buddha’s time, the garden and its tranquil environs were owned by both the Shakyas’ and Kolias’ clans. King Suddhodana, father of Gautama Buddha, was of the Shakya dynasty. In 642 BCE Maya Devi, the Buddha’s mother, was travelling to her parent’s home in Devadaha.. Stopping to rest in the garden of Lumbini, she was struck by the natural beauty of the place. It was then that she went into labour, and catching hold of a drooping branch of a tree, she delivered the future Buddha.

In 1896, Nepalese archaeologists discovered a great stone pillar at the site, attributed to Emperor Ashoka (304-232 BCE). A convert to Buddhism, Ashoka established monuments marking significant sites in the life of the Buddha. The Chinese pilgrim Faxian (c 337-422 CE) travelled to India on a mission to collect Buddhist scriptures, and it was also on the basis of the records of his journey that Lumbini was identified.

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Bodhi treeBodhgaya

Bodhgaya, place of his enlightenment

According to Buddhist traditions, Gautama Siddhartha reached the banks of the Falgu River near the city of Gaya circa 500 BCE. There he sat in meditation under a peepal tree (Ficus religiosa), and after three days and nights, he attained the answers he had sought through his years as a wandering monk.

For the next seven weeks he visited different spots in the vicinity, meditating and considering his experience, after which he travelled to Sarnath (see below) and began to teach the Dharma.

Disciples of the Buddha chose the month during whikch he had obtained enlightenment—the full moon of Vaisakh (April-May)—as a propitious time to visit Gaya. Eventually it became known as Bodh Gaya, and its history is documented in inscriptions and pilgrimage accounts, foremost among these being the accounts of the Chinese pilgrims Faxian (5th century CE) and Xuanzang (7th century CE). Attractions in Bodh Gaya include the Mahabodhi temple, the Bodhi tree, and ‘Vajrasana’, the stone platform where he sat in meditation while he attained enlightenment.

Stupa at Sarnathnr Varanasi

Varanasi, the place of his first sermon

Asalha Puja—also known as Dhamma Day—is one of Theravada Buddhism’s most important festivals, celebrating as it does the Buddha’s first sermon in the deer park at Sarnath in which he set out to his five former associates the doctrine that had come to him following his enlightenment.

This first pivotal sermon, often referred to as “setting into motion the wheel of dhamma,” is the teaching which is encapsulated for Buddhists in the four noble truths: all life is suffering (dukka); suffering is caused by craving (tanha); there is a state (nibbana) beyond suffering and craving; and finally, the way to nibbana is via the eightfold path. Whatever differences there may be between various schools and traditions of Buddhism, they all revolve around the central doctrine of the four noble truths.

It is from Sarnath that the new Sangha of monks went forth to spread the Dhamma.

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Mahaparinirvana TempleKusinara

Kusinara, the place of his death

The Buddha’s last days are described in the Pali text called the Great Parinirvana Sutra (Parinirvana meaning ‘completed nirvana’). In this text, self possessed and untroubled by the thoughts of his death, he identified four places of future pilgrimage: the sites of his birth, enlightenment, first sermon, and death. “But don’t hinder yourself by honouring my remains,” he added.

On reaching the village of Kusinara on the Hiranyavati river, he realised his end was approaching. He told his disciple Ananda to prepare a bed for him with its head turned towards the north. Ananda who served him for 20 years was deeply upset. “Don’t grieve, Ananda!” the Buddha consoled him. “The nature of things dictates that we must leave those dear to us. Everything born contains its own cessation. I too, Ananda, am grown old, and full of years, my journey is drawing to its close…”

Pilgrim with badges on his hat

The first souvenirs

During the Middle Ages it was customary for pilgrims to bring back proof of their pilgrimage to a particular shrine, usually a badge made of lead or pewter.  The badges often showed some figure or device that identified it with the name or place of pilgrimage. For instance, the scallop shell, which is the symbol of St James, was an indication that a pilgrim had been to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain.

Returning pilgrims proudly wore their badges fastened to their hat or cape. As well as being proof of having made a pilgrimage, they served to remind the pilgrim of the reason for their journey. Scallop-shell badges

The LGfL espresso for schools site has many short videos on various aspects of worship that can be shown to the class via an interactive white board. In order to access this material, you will be required to log on using your EgfL password (if you don’t have one, you can get one from your school’s ICT co-ordinator).

For a short video on Buddhist pilgrimage:

http://content.lgfl.org.uk/secure/faiths/t2_faiths/buddhism/video_pilgrimage.html#

Scheme prepared by: Elaine Levy, Little Ealing Primary School, London Borough of Ealing

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