Corpus Christi in Mazo

Corpus Christi (the body of Christ) is a big festival in Mazo. They decorate the streets with spectacular archways and carpets covered with flowers and seeds.

The main feast day is ten weeks after Maundy Thursday, so this year it’s very early. (In 2009 it will be on the 11th of June).

People collect the materials and work on the pieces pretty much all year, but it all comes together on a Wednesday night, so Thursday morning is the best time to see the archways.

If you can’t see them then, they stay up until Sunday.

The church of San Blas, at the bottom of the hill, gets decorated too. It’s a rather unusual church in that it has three naves.

And the flowers inside are wonderful. If you get there, check out the ceiling over the altar, too.

This is the 50th anniversary of the fiesta in its current form.

The carpets beneath the archways are made using things rather like wrought iron gates, as stencils. They lay the “gate” down on the sand, fill the sections with petals or whatever, squirt with water-with-a-bit-of-glue-in-it, and lift the gate up again.

Posted by sheila

Sheila came to La Palma with a six month contract and has stayed 24 years so far. She used to work as a software engineer at the observatory, but now she's a writer and Starlight guide.