Of Processions and Pilgrimages

It rained too during Holy Week but most vividly I associate the commemoration of the Passion with searing hot days. Streets were deserted under the fierce sun until evening when people began emerging from darkened houses to walk about, talk to neighbors and friends, and enjoy a respite from the stifling indoor heat.

In Spanish-influenced cultures we have the pasacalle, droves of people walking through the main drag of towns and cities in mass socialization. I was surprised to see the survival of this phenomenon last year when we toured Northern Spain. In Barcelona, the people thronging the Ramblas towards the sea were festive but one had to look out for pickpockets. At San Sebastian, it was heartening to see families, often mothers with small children, loiter and walk from the Catedral de Buen Pastor to the famed La Concha beach.

During Holy Week, people gathered in the evening to process around town, the men bearing richly ornamented and lit portable altars on their shoulders, the women singing hymns and praying the rosary. The snaking line of lit candles flickering in the dark evokes even today tremblingly sweet feelings transcendence and quiet joy.

Religious processions are not unique to Christianity. Many religions prescribe peregrinations. Buddhists and Hindus circumambulate counterclockwise around stupas and temples. Muslims circumambulate the Kaaba in Mecca during the annual hajj. On the way to Santiago de Compostela we saw scallop shells carved unto distance markers and city sidewalks, reminders that the most famous of all Christian pilgrimages was very much alive today. People not just from Europe but from all over the world respond to the strange, atavistic call to walk long distances, simply, arduously, thoughtfully, escaping for a few days or weeks the relentless cycles of work and practical concerns. Pilgrimages remind us of other values that can make our mundane peregrinations more meaningful, more tolerable.

Passacaglia became a widely used musical form after it moved from Spain to the rest of the continent. Variations of a theme moved over a ground bass pattern. Most famous, of course, is Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor.

Movement of bodies, movements of souls: we link minds, hearts, and bodies when we move communally in the joy of being alive, celebrating our social nature, connecting with ourselves and with others.