These festivals go back to the Middle Ages and their ceremonies are still the same; the crowd, candles in hand, sing and praise the Saint Marys.
May 24
A procession takes Sara, the Patron saint of the Gypsies to the sea. Just before this, inside the Church, the reliquaries contining her relics have been slowly brought down from the "High Chapel" by means of a winch, in the midst of the songs and praises. The statue of Sara, carried by the Gypsies to the sea,
symbolizes the waiting forand welcome of the Saints Mary Jacobe and Mary Salome.
This day's procession, in honour of Sara and the Gypsies, is a recent institution. In 1935, the Marquis de Baroncelli and a few Camargue Gardians, anxious to give the Gypsies in the Pilgrimage a place that they didn't have (at this time, there were just a few hundred of them, lost in the bigger crowd of pilgrims from Provence and the Languedoc), suceeded in organizing with the Gypsies of the region this march to the sea in memory of the arrival of "their Saint".
May 25
Following the morning's solemn mass, the "craft", with the statues of the Two Marys aboard, is borne to the sea, accompanied by the crowd of gypsy and non-gypsy pilgrims, carried by the ranchers on horseback and the Arlésienne girls in costume. The bearers go into the sea to well symbolize the arrival of the Saints Mary Jacobe and Mary Salome
and of the Faith. The Bishop, on board one of the traditional fishers' boats, blesses the sea, the region, the pilgrims and the Gypsies. The Procession then returns to the Church amidst the joy and acclamations, accompagnied by musical instruments and the set of bells. In the afternoon at the Church, with prayers and a popular fervor, the ceremony of bringing the reliquaries back up to the "High Chapel" takes place.
During these two days, services and vigils follow one another in the Church. |
