How many men for the bogafumeiro?

[Vigdis]

Yet another unusual question:
How many men swings the bogafumeiro during the mass in Santiago?
When I was there I definitely counted seven men, but I might have overseen one, as I in all books and descriptions elsewhere read eight.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Eight red-robed tiraboleiros pull the ropes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botafumeiro

 

[newfydog]

The eight men are descendants of three men who were sentenced to a lifetime of servitude to the church, for falsely accusing a Bishop of "nefarious vices too ugly to to be announced".

The botafumeirro has come untied and crashed into the crowd twice, once in 1499, and again in 1622. No one was hurt. (See Michener's Iberia, where he calls the Camino "the finest journey in Spain, and one of the two or three best in the world")

Last time I saw it an old lady gasped and grabbed me as it passed over our heads.

 

[Trudy]

For some reason I always thought there were seven tiraboleiros, but I've just checked my rather blurry photos and there are definitely eight men holding the ropes.

Trudy

 

[Sojourner47]

The eight men are descendants of three men who were sentenced to a lifetime of servitude to the church, for falsely accusing a Bishop of "nefarious vices too ugly to to be announced".


No change there, then.....

 

[Beverley]

In 2010 I was interested to see that the cathedral now has TV screens so the ceremony, mass, can be seen by everyone. They were put up for the Holy year I guess because they were not there in 2009. I counted 8 on the TV monitor