The One Hundred and Seventeenth Annual Pilgrimage at the Rockingham Meeting House took place on Sunday, August 6, 2023. Following traditions that reach back to the early twentieth century, visitors to the Meeting House took in the historic building, examined gravestones in its ancient cemetery, enjoyed music, and heard a lecture on history and culture connected to the landmark.
Musician and historian David Deacon presented a program of ballads coming from the early times of the region, which may have been heard at or around the Meeting House. Lunch was served on the meeting house grounds, and people then gathered to hear Dennis Montagna, who uses his expertise in the preservation of old gravestones in his work with the National Park Service. He shared his experience in preserving old burial grounds and offered ideas about the Rockingham Meeting House one. He will be back at Rockingham on September 9-10 for a Graveyard Conservation Conference which will give more intensive instruction about the subject to interested people. Mr. Montagna took people on a brief tour of landmark gravestones in the cemetery at the Meeting House.
A few classic antique cars were parked next to the Meeting House, as was the old Rockingham hearse, dating back well into the nineteenth century.
The Pilgrimage has changed some over the decades. Not so many people pack the Meeting House, although there was a good turnout this year. The amount of praying and hymn singing has tended to dwindle. The devotion to the building, its people, and the community it serves is still very much present.
Have there really been a hundred and seventeen Pilgrimages?
The 2023 Rockingham Meeting House Pilgrimage was designated the One Hundred and Seventeenth one in the series. The first Pilgrimage took place in 1907, celebrating the preservation of the Meeting House after some years of neglect. People of Rockingham and vicinity and people with roots in the community flocked to the Meeting House to celebrate its resurrection. The word “Pilgrimage” was used to describe the return visit of folks from afar to the place of their origin and roots. In time, Rockingham Old Home Days emerged to celebrate the same idea.
From the start, the Pilgrimage became an annual celebration. Starting in 1911, it was under the sponsorship of the newly formed Rockingham Meeting House Association. The archives of the Association contain program brochures for most of the annual events and various posters and newspaper clippings for some of them.
The 2012 Pilgrimage program was cancelled because a program planned for that year was not able to be carried out. The 2020 Pilgrimage was unable to take place because of restrictions from the COVID epidemic. Allowing for those “silent” Pilgrimages, there has been some recognition of the Meeting House annually since 1907. That’s how the 2023 event got to be called the 117th Annual Pilgrimage.