In this article, we focus on the folklore created by the players and communities of the critically acclaimed and popular Japanese role-playing game Final Fantasy VII (Square Enix, 1997). The formation of what we call Final Fantasy VII fan folklore is presented here as a mixture of the game's transmediality (with official walkthroughs and guidebooks) and elements of the game kept secret by the developers (as well as several false rumors), which were carefully discovered and circulated by the players through an oral tradition (offline and later online) that circulate to this day. By conducting a narrative analysis of the official commercial for Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix, 2020), we argue that the creation of Final Fantasy VII fan folklore has become an important contemporary experiential feature of a nostalgic turn in the gaming industry, and we show that remakes and new editions of older popular products rely heavily on the specific new form of folklore that goes beyond one game.

In this article, we have analysed how natural features influenced the emergence of maritime pilgrimages in the Eastern Adriatic (three sites in Croatia and one in Montenegro). All researched locations are insular and dedicated to the Virgin Mary (Madonna). We applied a diverse methodology, including flying a drone and completing fieldwork and archival work studying old maps and documents. We believe that the geography of pilgrimages in these sites reflects the relational interaction between the religious practices of the local communities, mostly fisherman, and their lived environment. We argue that all four locations of the churches and sites of pilgrimage were, at least partially, determined by natural features of their environment, i.e. a safe harbour and a site protected from winds, located within fisherman communities living space, etc. Because of these environmental determinants, the local communities created their pilgrimage geography with ritualistic and religious pilgrimage practices and folklore.

In this article, we argue that the different ritual structures of maritime pilgrimages result from the different historical backgrounds of each site. We have focused on two maritime pilgrimage sites in the Adriatic Sea: Nin, in contemporary Croatia (Northern Dalmatia), and Perast, in contemporary Montenegro (Kotor Bay). We compared these two locations and maritime pilgrimage processions because they have similar historical backgrounds (both were under Venice’s significant influence), and comparable boat processions with similar structural elements. We concluded that multilayered customs, consisting of diverse popular traditions, were fused in these pilgrimages through ecclesiastical (para)liturgical processions. Based on material presented in this article, we concluded that the Nin and Perast elites drew on local traditions and developed maritime pilgrimage boat processions in order to draw out their political, religious, social, and economic potentials.

Focusing on maritime pilgrimages to the Madonna of the Reef in Perast (Montenegro) and the Madonna of Zečevo in Nin (Croatia), the authors explore how tourism—which has become the primary economic driver for local populations—has impacted these centuries-old and deeply religious sites and practices. Local religious and cultural heritage, which has evolved into a tourist attraction, is deeply integrated into the local way of life, particularly within maritime and fishing communities. The shift in the dynamics of everyday life and the evolution of these sites and communities—now framed predominantly within the realm of tourism as the primary economic driver—has resulted in religious practices and pilgrimage sites transforming into tourist attractions. The research is divided into two segments. The initial phase, conducted between 2021 and 2023, involved group interviews using a consistent methodology and research instrument, engaging pertinent stakeholders from the respective local communities. The second segment involves a content analysis of websites promoting maritime pilgrimages and categorising them into two distinct groups: (1) websites of national, regional, and local tourist organisations responsible for promoting tourism in Croatia and Montenegro, and (2) Tripadvisor. The research and analysis indicate that local stakeholders lack the intention to promote and utilise maritime religious pilgrimage as a tourist attraction. While both maritime pilgrimages have undergone transformations and incorporated new elements, these changes are not primarily driven by tourism. Instead, they result from general shifts in everyday life.

This article is about the Fašinada custom. The Fašinada refers to the transporting of stones by boat from the coast to a small island named Madonna of the Reef in Perast, Montenegro. This custom both commemorates the finding of a miraculous painting of the Madonna on a reef in the sea, and it furthers the island’s construction by piling stones on that reef. I consider issues of both representation and relationality linked to this site. These two aspects constantly intermingle, and one cannot be understood without the other. In the first part of the article, I draw more on a political economy perspective on human intentionality and consider the material results of social relations. I describe and explain the complex background to the Madonna of the Reef pilgrimage, the different practices linked to this island and her saint, the transformations that Perast in general and maritime pilgrimages in particular have undergone over time, and then, I describe the multivocality of the contemporary Perast community. In the second half of this article, I consider relational and dwelling perspectives on the co-option and construction of the Madonna of the Reef, and how nature has affected social relations. In doing so, I consider “nonhuman agency” as one of the main reasons why the custom of the Fašinada has transcended its religious context and become a space for interreligious encounters.

The articles in this thematic issue are the product of research on ‘(Re)Constructing Religioscapes as Competing Territorial Claims in Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina,’ funded by the National Science Foundation (USA). The project was developed from earlier comparative and interdisciplinary research that had led to the development of a model of ‘Antagonistic Tolerance’ (AT) to understand relations over multiple generations between members of religiously-based heritage communities who lived intermingled but rarely intermarrying (Hayden et al., 2016).