De ‘Bomen voor het Leven’-dag en de rituele referentie van de bedevaart/pelgrimage

Samenvatting

In the Netherlands the ‘Tree for Life Day’, which was organised for the first time in 2000, represents a living memorial to loved ones that have died from cancer. Since 2000 the next of kin of cancer victims come together on the last Saturday of November to commemorate by walking, being silent and planting trees in a young forest. In this contribution the author formulates a number of exploratory observations on this example of an emerging ritual. The pilgrimage reference is used, directly and indirectly, as an analytical instrument.