A journey to a shrine or place of religious importance. The practice has its roots in the OT, when Abraham visited Mount Moriah (Gen. 22). In the course of time journeys to the Temple became a part of Jewish life (hence Luke 2: 41 ff.). In the 4th cent. CE a Spanish abbess, Etheria, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and other holy places and her account in Latin described the kind of worship she found there, as well as enabling various sites to be identified.
The NT sometimes regards human life as a pilgrimage; Christian believers are temporary dwellers on earth who are travelling towards an eternal destination (Heb. 11: 13 ff.).