6.4: Shrines and other Sacred Spaces

The practice of turning profane, secular, or ordinary locations into sacred spaces where worship activities may transpire is commonplace. The process by which a location becomes sanctified or ordinary spaces become hallowed or holy is not as easy to understand. Holy persons, such as priests, may perform a consecration ceremony upon buildings or grounds. Buildings or spaces can also be deconsecrated through a ritual. The aggressive destruction of a holy or sacred site by vandals, or sometimes by rival religious groups, is known as desecration.

Figure 6-30: Troy, NY - Home-made folk shrines such as this stone grotto in Upstate New York are common in areas with large Catholic populations.

Clearly though, there are many sacred sites that have become holy through a less formal process. In areas where Catholicism is prevalent, small folk-art shrines, generally dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and enclosed in an artificial grotto are easily spotted. These shrines are sometimes fashioned out of old bathtubs, prompting some to humorously label such a shrine a “Bathtub Mary”, or a “Madonna on the Half Shell”. Similar are the impromptu, and frequently temporary, shrines erected to victims of car crashes or other accidents. Mourners often place candles, crosses, crudely painted bicycles (ghost bikes) and other memorabilia at the site of an accident, temporarily creating a sacred space for mourners who may have known the victim.

Occasionally, the site of a particularly public tragedy will be treated as sacred space; inviting religious-like pilgrimage and even dark tourism. The ground zero location in New York City, Dealey Plaza in Dallas and Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. may be considered sacred space by some because people come to remember, grieve and ponder metaphysical questions. Behavior in such locations often approximates that which is regularly observed in formally recognized sacred spaces. For example, people tend to talk in hushed tones, they walk and gesture slowly etc. Some monuments that are ostensibly sacred, like the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., also (almost imperceptibly) invite visitors to treat the space as sacred.