The paper is an ethnographic case study of the visitors of the pilgrimage siteof Brezje in Slovenia. The aim of this analysis was a systematic observation of the visitors' linguistic and paralinguistic behaviour (Marian veneration) in the central shrine of pilgrimage, the chapel of Mary Our Help. Methods that were used in analysis were participant observation and unstructured interviews with 24 people. The core period of the observation waspre-Christmas and Christmas days (December 23rd till 25th 2002) as well as January 1st and 2nd 2003, setting January 7th and 8th as control days. The case study revealed several characteristic features. The relevance of the Marian devotion seems to be high all year round, increasing somewhat in the summer months when the local pilgrims are joined by foreign visitors. The observation of the visitors to the shrine, considering the level of their religious devotion, the way they entered and left the shrine, their behaviour in front of the church and the level of their sociability, revealed two distinct aspects: the religious and the social one. There seem to be four different types of visitors : young couples, elderly couples, parents with children and individuals. Judging by the findings it can be assumed that alongwith traditional Catholic values there seem to appear more individual forms of veneration as well.
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