Like the Mississippi River that formed the landscape that we call home, Natchez’s biggest tourist attraction ebbs and flows, meanders and evolves.

While the two pilgrimage house tours — fall and spring — that attracts thousands of visitors to Natchez may seem stale, even stagnant, it’s anything but.

This year’s fall pilgrimage, which begins today features new events that have been created and tailored to either attract new visitors or give returning visitors something new to experience in Natchez.

Not too many years ago, pilgrimage was a very fixed, very repetitive event. As new owners came into the caretaking role of some of the antebellum structures and new blood came into leadership roles in tourism, things began changing.

Tours began taking on a bit more fun and became a bit more engaging.

This year’s fall pilgrimage will feature ghost tours and an opportunity for visitors to dine like a wealthy aristocrat from the antebellum period.

Plus all of the great “usual” entertainment options will exist as well, the “Mississippi Medicine Show,” “Amos Polk’s Voices of Hope,” and special music, food and drinks throughout the area.

And of course the houses that set Natchez apart in their grandeur and beauty.

Sometimes driving past these magnificent buildings we can take the beauty around us for granted.

As pilgrimage begins, however, we urge everyone to stop and appreciate the blessings our community has and top among those blessings are our uniquely diverse population of great residents that make events such as pilgrimage possible.