Journey From a “Small Place” to a “Big Place”: Mediated and Divided Sanctity in a Pilgrimage Holiday

Abstract

 Sacred spaces have usually been presented dichotomously in pilgrimage studies: small or big, near or far, at the "center of the world" or at the margins. This article discusses a unique combined pilgrimage during the Seged holiday of the Jews of Ethiopia, which is still celebrated today. Based on testimonies, I conclude that they made a physical and symbolic journey from the "small place" to the "big place". The "big place", similarly to the sacredness itself, was also divided into two memory places. The liturgy of the Seged mediated between the "small place" and the "big place". It also created a connection between the "small time" which includes the small everyday actions, and the "big time" which includes large leaps toward a mythological past.