Bruges - Holy Blood with Roger Vangheluwe 3

In this part to the procession tableaux and floats enacts scenes from the nativity in Bethlehem; the shepards and the Three Kings from the East; the young Christ theaching in the Jerusalem Temple; Herod and Salome and behaeding of John the Baptist; the Blessing of the Children; His Triumphal "Hosannah" Entry on the back of a donkey on Palmsunday: the Last Supper and the Sanhedrin.

THE HOLY BLOOD PROCESSION: Legend has it that after the Crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea wiped blood from the body of Christ and preserved the cloth.

There was a rock-crystal vial with Holy Blood in the extensive collection of relics of the Byzantine Emperor. It was lost when Constantinople was sacked by the Crusader army of Count of Flanders Baldwin IX in 1204, during the Fourth Crusade. Baldwin IX probably sent the Holy Blood, looted from the Byzantines, to Bruges shortly thereafter. The first historical record to mention the Holy Blood in Bruges dates from 1256.
The Bruges-story said it came direct from Jerusalem with the Second Crusade, as the King of Jerusalem Baldwin III gave it to his brother-in-law, Count of Flanders Diederik van de Elzas. The Bruges mythe of 1256 set a date when the count arrived with his Holu Blood in Bruges: April 7, 1150. A clever act to pevent any Byzantine claims as it was stolen from Constantinople, although the manner in which the rock-crystal vial is cut indicates there its origin.
Ever since it arrived in Bruges, it has been the subject of great veneration. This Holy Blood is acclaimed to made Bruges one of the wealthiest cities of northern Europe during the Middle Ages
The tradition of the procession is first recorded in 1291. Every year on Ascension Day in the spring it followed a route around the city walls. Until 1578.
That year the protestant religious wars necessitated its relocation to the city center, and it is this route that is still followed today, when residents dress in elaborate costumes to accompany the shrine.

Today Bruges is Belgium's most popular tourist destination. And the day the Holy Blood is paraded through the city is the most important event on the Bruges cultural calendar.

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