Corpus Christi in Mazo

Mazo in La Palma is one of the best places to be at Corpus Christi. Of course, Catholics all over the world celebrate the fiesta, but in Mazo they make the most wonderful archways and carpets decorated with petals, leaves and seeds.

Each village of the municipality makes an archway with a carpet and a little altar.

During a normal Catholic mass, the host is put into a special vessel called a monstrance. During the procession at Mazo, the priest walks on the flower carpets while everyone else walks at the sides. As the priest reaches each archway, he places the monstrance on the little altar, kneels, and wafts incense towards it.

It’s difficult to overstate the work that goes into this.  For example, how long do you think it would take you to do make of these?

And there are 25 of these rosettes across the base of the archway.

And the whole thing is maybe 10 metres (33 ft) high.

The archways will stay up until Sunday. If you miss this, you can see some examples from previous years in the Red House Museum. You can also see photos of last year’s archways and procession here.

Next year, Corpus Christi will be on 23 June 2011.

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.