Pilgrimage to Fatima

 So not many truly unqiue events happening this weekend, but one that I did find out about is the pilgrimage to Fatima. I have been to Fatima, and found it so humbling to see the people walking across the hard concrete on their knees, heads bowed, hands together in prayer.. I am told that some do it for as many as 10 hours at a stretch! 

Here is some more about the Pilgrimage to Fatima:

On 13 May 1917 the Virgin Mary reportedly visited three shepherd children in fields near Fatima. Today several million head for the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima to take part in the Pilgrimage to Fatima.
Most visit especially around the anniversary of the first visit in May but there are smaller pilgrimages on the 12th and 13th of each month. From Easter to November the pilgrimage begins on the evening of the 11th and includes multi-lingual masses, Stations of the Cross, Eucharistic processions, International Rosary, a candlelight procession and a Night Vigil. The pilgrimage culminates in the Adeus ("farewell") procession at 10am.

The Virgin, who originally appeared to the children and asked them to return six times on the 13th of each month, promising to tell them who she was and what she wanted in October. There were many sceptics and the children were interrogated by the church authorities. They refused to change their story and people began to come to Fatima to await the vision. Although only the children have ever seen her, by the last appearance, 70,000 people gathered in the town to witness the "Miracle of the Sun". Eye witnesses reported that the skies cleared to reveal a sun which grew into a blinding ball of fire and that miracles took place.

The Virgin told the children the three "Secrets of Fatima": a message of peace and a vision of hell, which was related to the First World War; the second concerned Russia, wars and persecution, just weeks before the Bolsheviks took St Petersburg; and the third secret, revealed by Pope John Paul II, was a symbolic revelation, saying that if Russia is healed, there will be peace, if not its errors would spread throughout the world...

Some other events that took place:
Railfest Steam Days
Where: 901 West Pratt Street, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Travel back in time for two days at the Railfest Steam Days. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum highlights its steam engine collection with demonstrations, events and displays of operating steam locomotives such as The Lafayette

World Conker Championships
Where: Armston Road, Polebrook, UK
Flags wave, a fanfare blares and giant squirrels and cowboys plunge into battle with absurd national stereotypes and six-foot fairies. It can only be the world conker championships, held every year at New Lodge Fields near Oundle, Northamptonshire.
Over the years the championships have raised more than £350,000 for the blind and visually impaired. Thousands surround the podiums in New Lodge Fields, offering noisy support as streams of hopefuls swing and smash their way to notoriety, or obscurity.

Best of all, if you apply early enough you can even take part. This is one of very few sports where Britannia still rules (or cares!) and there can be no greater accolade for a new world champion than to be crowned with conkers in the spotlight of a glorious autumn sunset.