The Aachen Pilgrimage 2021 - June 18-28

[Nikolaus]

... forking from my Hello! thread...

The next Aachen Pilgrimage will take place from June 18th - 28th, 2021.

On occasion of the consecration of Aachen cathedral about 800 AD, Charlemagne received cloth relics from Jerusalem as a gift; since the 13th century, they are kept in St Mary's Shrine in the cathedral. The shrine is opened up every seven years and the relics are shown to the public for 10 days. This tradition is alive until today; 2014, about 120.000 pilgrims travelled to Aachen during the Aachen Pilgrimage.

The four relics are: St Mary's dress; Jesus' swaddling clothes ; the decapitation cloth of John the Baptist; and the loin cloth of Jesus from the day of crucifixion. There are daily pilgrim masses (mostly open-air) during which the relics are shown, night prayers and a cultural programme during these days. They are a very important event for the city and it's church. On the homepage, there is a short introduction video.

This is a thread for all information about it and for all interested or planning to be in Aachen next year.

 

[Kathar1na]

The next Aachen Pilgrimage will take place from June 18th - 28th, 2021.

Interesting. Thank you for posting this. Well-made webpages and videos, some of it even in English.

Correct me if I am wrong: this is still a predominantly religious event, a Catholic endeavour and not comparable to the more secular Camino walking of today. Although a few people do walk on foot to Aachen, even from very far, the overwhelming majority doesn't. There are no Ways to Aachen, there is no contemporary tradition to walk long-distance on pilgrimage to Aachen and no infrastructure to support this on a large scale.

There are some pilgrimage walks of short duration within the city of Aachen in the context of this event in 2021.

It is also interesting to note, I think, that the German word used for this Aachen event that takes place every seven years since 1349, following the horrible plague epidemic that devastated Europe in the 14th century, is Heiligtumsfahrt. Heiligtumsfahrt is a rather unusual word, and not the common German word for pilgrimage which is Wallfahrt (the meaning is similar to the Spanish romeria) or Pilgerreise or Pilgern. Or, nowadays, ein Camino.

 

[Jodean]

Hm, I live just a few hours from Aachen, might have to take a train ride to see this. The town, cathedral, and museum are all worth a visit anyway, though I saw them a few years ago when they had a special Charlamagne exhibition.

 

[Madrood]

This appears to have been postponed to 2023, link here.

 

[Kitsambler]

One can learn many things from YouTube these days, ranging from brain surgery to French pastry. And so it happened that I was viewing a series on art history, in preparation for an upcoming trip. And the Aachen pilgrimage was discussed in this piece. The Aachen event was a major pilgrimage, complete with a badge to show the pilgrim's success/achievement/blessing. For Aachen, this badge was called the "Aachen mirror", which struck me as entirely odd. Very unlike the Santiago scallop shell or the Jerusalem palm.

Turns out, people in the Middle Ages didn't quite have their physics right: their understanding was that when we see something, we actually see it by the process of tiny objects from the thing entering our eyes. If it is a Holy Thing (ie, a Relic), then those are Holy Tiny Objects that enter our eyes, therefore making us more holy.

In Aachen, the procedure was for the pilgrims to assemble in the plaza, and the relics would be brought out and held up so all could see (and venerate). The pilgrims would hold up their "Aachen mirror" pilgrim badges (small pieces of filigree the size of a modern broach, with a sighting hole in center) to collect the Holy Tiny Objects emitting from the relics.

This description suddenly illuminated my understanding of medieval pilgrimage. I'd always wondered why so many -- thousands -- would go to such trouble, even at the risk of life and limb, to go see these relics in person. Now I begin to understand some of their motivation.