Its celebration corresponds to Thursday Corpus, which It is celebrated 60 days after Easter Sunday.
Specifically, Corpus Christi is the Thursday following the ninth Sunday after the Northern Hemisphere’s first spring full moon. In some countries this festival has been moved to the following Sunday to adapt to the work calendar, as in Íscar.
To get to know it better, we share with you extracts from a good summary already made by the Iscarian historian, Jorge Esteban Molina, included in his research and publication: (The festival of Santa María de los Mártires y Los Quintos in Íscar (Valladolid): historical roots, conformation and recent evolution).
JOAQUÍN DÍAZ FOUNDATION FOLKLORE MAGAZINE No. 453
Start from page 16. https://funjdiaz.net/folklore/pdf/rf453.pdf
“The celebration of Corpus Christi was instituted for all of Christianity in the year 1264 by Pope Urban IV.
In 1316 John XXII also introduced the festival of the Octave and the exposition of the Sacred Form with all honors.
In the Peninsula the festival is documented since the late medieval period in cities such as Évora (ca. 1265), Toledo (1280), Seville (1282), Barcelona (1319) or Valencia (1355), being already fully consolidated in the main centers of the peninsular kingdoms in the 15th century.
The emergence of the Corpus Christi procession is later, since it occurred in the middle of the 16th century in an unequivocal context of defense and affirmation of the Sacrament that emerged in the heat of the Council of Trent.
Following the dictates of Trent, the processional exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, until then reserved inside the temples, will be celebrated outside, contributing decisively to the Corpus Christi becoming the quintessential Counter-Reformation festival.
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During much of the Modern Age, coinciding with the reigns of the Habsburg dynasty, the procession of the Blessed Sacrament became one of the celebrations of greatest solemnity and public significance in our country, representing the culminating moment of the annual festive cycle and the main reference for the rest of the festivities.
That splendor, however, would gradually fade with the arrival of the Bourbons to the Spanish throne at the beginning of the 18th century, until Charles III finally prohibited most of its profane components through the Royal Decree of July 21, 1780. , contributing since then to the celebration having a more solemn character.
In fact, throughout the 18th century, parish documentation shows the inclusion of a new expense of an ornamental nature destined for the festivities of the owners of the Iscarian parishes, such as the placement of bowers, in the case that concerns us. in the atrium. The oldest factory books preserved are those of the parish of San Pedro (1518), followed by Santa María de los Mártires (1614) and San Miguel (1646).
Caro Baroja pointed out that it was common to place plant decorations along the processional route (whether bowers on the facades, ferns, plants on the floors), the performance of union or peasant dances, the parade of giants, big heads and dwarfs, representations of animals (bulls, eagles), monsters (tarasca), as well as horseback riders and burlesque characters (vegigueros, mojigones, etc.)
Valiente Timón has expressed himself more recently in similar terms, alluding to the meaning that Caro Baroja himself gave it as a solstice festival, a character that, consequently, leads to it being impregnated with multiple rites of popular roots, hence in its procession parades a diverse cast of characters to the rhythm of music, such as tarascas, botargas, giants and bigheads, dancers, etc.4; or that the processional route was adorned with elements of notable sumptuousness, such as rich hangings, altars, paintings and awnings, as well as floral decorations and bowers. “
(Folklore Magazine number 453 – November 2019 -Joaquín Díaz Foundation)
