Monday, July 7, 2014

Corpus Christi Celebrations - Marta - Italy


Marta may only be a small participant when it comes to Corpus Christi Celebrations, for me that makes it even more poignant that the locals rally around to work together and decorate the road outside their own neighbourhoods in preparation for the Annual Corpus Christi Procession. This year it took place on Sunday June 22nd, it is an event which is celebrated all over Italy with Infiorate/flower displays on the streets made with petals, from fresh flowers where possible but augmented with paper and coloured wood chippings.  Whilst Marta’s celebration of the event may not be one of the larger events that take place in Italy, it is still something that many people in our little town are proud to take part in.

I am not a Catholic so am unable to comment on the significance of the event but I am able to share my photos with you, which I hope will tell the story of how seriously even a small village takes this event. 

On Sunday morning just a few hours before the procession was due to begin, the area was suddenly a hive of activity, as everyone prepared their displays.














                          An altar was set up ready for the service.


                                             The Procession










 I previously wrote about this event on my blog News From Italy back in 2011.
  1. The Feast of Corpus Christi (Latin for Body of Christ), also known as Corpus Domini, is a Latin Rite liturgical solemnity celebrating the tradition and belief in the body and blood of Jesus Christ and his Real Presence in the Eucharist.  Wikipedia

9 comments:

  1. Those flower decorations are wonderful. Thank you for sharing these photos. xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Now only if they did this in the UK , can you imagine it. I wonderful to be so proud of your town and your celebrations, beautiful colours too, So happy that you got to go back to Marta, xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. The lakeside setting is a beautiful one as there's the opportunity to arrange that beautiful flower decoration with a procession and Mass in the open air. I love seeing the children that have had or are going to have their first communion all dressed up and the little girls strewing flower petals along the way.

    ReplyDelete
  4. For us in the UK it is unusual to see flower arrangements in the road - simple and very effective.

    ReplyDelete
  5. so beautiful and so much work to get it that way

    ReplyDelete
  6. we have a very similiar tradition here:)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like the way the community comes together for this event. I was raised as a Catholic and went to 8 years of Catholic School, but remember nothing about Corpus Christi. I do remember a lot of ritual and most of the Latin Mass and hymns (lthough I haven't attended Mass for many years now) so I don't think it is because of my aging brain. I really think this holy day was not celebrated in the German Catholic tradition to which our nuns belonged in our little Eastern Washington town. I might take time to look this up. But really, when Bill and I visited Corpus Christi Texas I figured out what the name meant, but it definitely brought back no memories.

    Makes me wonder! Meanwhile Marta looks like such a lovely little village and I am sure you had bittersweet memories in going back to it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow long line of flowers decoration. Looked like a lovely nice town. Hope my next trip, I can head west. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Amazing floral decorations such detail and work involved in a very pretty place

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for visiting Travel Tales and taking the time to leave a comment. I really appreciate your support, which is a great encouragement to me and reading them is always a pleasure. All commenter's will receive a visit back from me and followers a follow back. I will respond to questions here but not reply to every individual comment due to time constraints, a problem we all have.