This Easter, my family has been on a pilgrimage. Not to Lourdes, the Vatican or any other beacon of the Christian faith. Instead, like thousands of other Americans and Europeans (not to mention nations of other hues), I have been visiting another modern temple: the Disney World parks in Florida. And there, to the delight of my two girls, we have watched assorted Disney characters dance, ridden heart-stopping rides, gobbled hotdogs and emerged with a pile of modern plastic relics, including some wildly overpriced – and entirely useless – sparkling silver mouse ears.

To be sure, this is not “religion” as most Americans consider it. Indeed, the very idea might make many recoil in horror. But, after rubbing shoulders with thousands of other over-excited kids (and parents), I have come to the conclusion that the Disney theme parks are one of the most unifying shrines found in America today.

Never mind the eye-popping crowds who pass through them each year (in 2010 these totalled some 120 million for all of the global Disney parks, with more than 30 million in the top two parks in America alone, or six times the number of pilgrims who visit the Vatican each year).