Dancing procession of Echternach
Encyclopedia
Echternach
Echternach is a commune with city status in the canton of Echternach, which is part of the district of Grevenmacher, in eastern Luxembourg. Echternach lies near the border with Germany, and is the oldest town in Luxembourg....
, in eastern Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
. Echternach's is the last traditional dancing procession in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
The procession is held every Whit Tuesday
Whit Tuesday
Whit Tuesday is the Christian holiday celebrated the day after Pentecost Monday, the third day of the week beginning on Pentecost. Pentecost is a movable feast in the Christian calendar dependent upon the date of Easter.In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Whit Tuesday is known as the "Third Day of the...
around the streets of the city of Echternach. It honours Willibrord
Willibrord
__notoc__Willibrord was a Northumbrian missionary saint, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" in the modern Netherlands...
, the patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
of Luxembourg, who established the Abbey of Echternach
Abbey of Echternach
The Abbey of Echternach is a Benedictine monastery in the town of Echternach, in eastern Luxembourg. The Abbey was founded by St Willibrord, the patron saint of Luxembourg, in the seventh century...
. Echternach has developed a strong tourism industry centred around the procession, which draws many thousands of tourists and pilgrim
Pilgrim
A pilgrim is a traveler who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journeying to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system...
s from around the world. The procession is inscribed in 2010 as hopping procession of Echternach on the UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The procession
The event begins in the morning at the bridge over the River SauerSauer
The Sauer or Sûre is a river in Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. A left tributary of the river Moselle, its total length is 173 km....
, with a sermon delivered by the parish priest (formerly by the abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
of the monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
). "Willibrordus-Bauverein" officials put together the procession, forming several dozen alternating groups of musicians (/bands) and pilgrims. The procession then moves through the town streets towards the basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
, a distance of about 1.5 kilometre (0.93205910497471 mi). While the musicians (/the bands in the procession) play the "Sprangprozessioùn" tune - a traditional melody, not entirely unlike an Irish jig or reel, that has been handed down through the centuries- the pilgrims, in rows of four or five abreast and holding the ends of white handkerchiefs, "dance" or "jump" from left to right and thus slowly move forward. Seen the numbers of pilgrims attending, it is well after midday before the last of the dancers has reached the church. A large number of priests, nuns and monks also accompany the procession, and not infrequently there are several bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
s as well. On arrival at the church, the dance is continued past the tomb of Saint Willibrord, which stands in the crypt
Crypt
In architecture, a crypt is a stone chamber or vault beneath the floor of a burial vault possibly containing sarcophagi, coffins or relics....
beneath the high altar. Litanies
Litany
A litany, in Christian worship and some forms of Jewish worship, is a form of prayer used in services and processions, and consisting of a number of petitions...
and prayers in the Saint's honour are recited, and the whole event concludes with a benediction of the sacrament.
In the past, the dancing procession has adopted other forms. At one stage the pilgrims would take 3 steps forward and 2 steps backwards thus taking five steps in order to advance one, at another stage the pilgrims would repeatedly stop at the sound of the bell donated by Emperor Maximilian
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I , the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never in fact crowned by the Pope, the journey to Rome always being too risky...
, falling to their knees before moving forward a few more steps. At yet another time, pilgrims would crawl under a stone, facing the cross of St. Willibrord. A 'cattle-bell dance' used to take place in front of the cross, which was erected on the marketplace; this dance was prohibited in 1664.
History
Willibrord's Abbey of Echternach was a major Christian centre in the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, and maintained a famous library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
and scriptorium
Scriptorium
Scriptorium, literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the copying of manuscripts by monastic scribes...
. However, it owes its modern fame to the quaint dancing procession. This aspect of the cult of the saint may be traced back almost to the date of his death; among the stream of pilgrims to his tomb in the abbey church have been Emperors
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...
Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
, Lothair I
Lothair I
Lothair I or Lothar I was the Emperor of the Romans , co-ruling with his father until 840, and the King of Bavaria , Italy and Middle Francia...
, Conrad
Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor
Conrad II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1027 until his death.The son of a mid-level nobleman in Franconia, Count Henry of Speyer and Adelaide of Alsace, he inherited the titles of count of Speyer and of Worms as an infant when Henry died at age twenty...
, and later Maximilian (in 1512).
Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
historians are reluctant to ascribe any pre-Christian antecedents to the dancing procession, and claim only that its origin cannot be stated with certainty. There might be elements of pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
cult, such as the ones that were criticised by Saint Eligius
Saint Eligius
Saint Eligius is the patron saint of goldsmiths, other metalworkers, and coin collectors. He is also the patron saint of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers , a corps of the British Army, but he is best known for being the patron saint of horses and those who work with them...
in the 7th century. Documents of the fifteenth century speak of it as a long-established custom at that time, and a similar "dancing" procession, which used to take place in the small town of Prüm
Prüm
Prüm is a town in the Westeifel , Germany. Formerly a district capital, today it is the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Prüm.-Geography:...
, in the Eifel
Eifel
The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium....
, was documented as early as 1342. Legends are told that relate the dancing procession to an averted plague or offer a fable about a condemned fiddler, but the dancing procession to the saint's tomb is an annual ceremony done as an act of penance
Penance
Penance is repentance of sins as well as the proper name of the Roman Catholic, Orthodox Christian, and Anglican Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation/Confession. It also plays a part in non-sacramental confession among Lutherans and other Protestants...
on behalf of afflicted relations and especially in order to avert epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
, Saint Vitus Dance
Chorea (disease)
Choreia is an abnormal involuntary movement disorder, one of a group of neurological disorders called dyskinesias. The term choreia is derived from the Greek word χορεία , see choreia , as the quick movements of the feet or hands are vaguely comparable to dancing or piano playing.The term...
, or convulsion
Convulsion
A convulsion is a medical condition where body muscles contract and relax rapidly and repeatedly, resulting in an uncontrolled shaking of the body. Because a convulsion is often a symptom of an epileptic seizure, the term convulsion is sometimes used as a synonym for seizure...
s.
The procession took place annually without intermission until 1777. There has been an uneasy relationship with the church hierarchy; in 1777, the music and dancing of the 'dancing saints' were forbidden by Archbishop Wenceslas, who declared that there should only be a pilgrim's procession, and, in 1786, Emperor Joseph II
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
abolished the procession altogether. Attempts were made to revive it ten years later, and, although the French Revolution effectually prevented it, it was recommenced in 1802, and has continued ever since. In 1826, the government tried to change the day to a Sunday, but, since 1830, it has always taken place on Whit Tuesday
Whit Tuesday
Whit Tuesday is the Christian holiday celebrated the day after Pentecost Monday, the third day of the week beginning on Pentecost. Pentecost is a movable feast in the Christian calendar dependent upon the date of Easter.In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Whit Tuesday is known as the "Third Day of the...
, a traditional day that, significantly, bears no direct relation to St. Willibrord himself.