ABSTRACT
This chapter explores contemporary interest in pilgrimage to war graves and war memorials by examining two case studies. It considers the resurgence of interest in such pilgrimage in the British context since the mid-1980s, placing it within the historical context of earlier pilgrimages to the cemeteries and memorials of the First World War in the 1920s and 1930s. The chapter examines the particular example of the traditions of pilgrimage and personal rituals that have developed in relation to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC using an American context. It is concerned with the ways in which individuals express or seek to resolve their private griefs and perplexities over the deaths of relatives or friends in war by visiting official war cemeteries and memorials. The chapter explores some of the possible relationships between personal pilgrimages to war graves and memorials, and the concept of 'civil religion'.
