Corpus Christi is a celebration of the Catholic Church in honor of the Blessed Sacrament, the Eucharist. "It is the exaltation of the real presence of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist, instituted by Jesus on Holy Thursday", as summarized by the anthropologist Manuel Mandianes.
The origin of Corpus Christi dates back to the Middle Ages when in 1208 the nun Juliana de Cornillon promoted the idea of celebrating a festival in honor of the Body and Blood of Christ and shortly after, in 1264, Pope Urban IV institutionalized this religious festival. Already in the 16th century, at the Council of Trent it was decreed that every year the body of Christ should be carried in procession through the streets of the towns.
The date of the celebration of Corpus Christi is calculated based on the lunar calendar, set on Thursday of the second week after Pentecost or, what is the same, 60 days after Easter Sunday. It is the Thursday after the ninth Sunday following the first spring full moon in the northern hemisphere.
In this way, Corpus 2023 takes place on Thursday, June 8.
According to the work calendar for this year, Castilla-La Macha is the only autonomous community where June 8 is a holiday in all its provinces (Toledo, Guadalajara, Cuenca, Albacete and Ciudad Real) on the occasion of this celebration. That day is also a local holiday in the cities of Seville and Granada.
This tradition rooted in the Catholic faith is usually transferred to Sunday in almost all of Spain due to civil adaptation. But, as Mandianes explains, tradition continues to remember Thursday as the day of the festival: "There are three Thursdays in the year that shine brighter than the sun: Holy Thursday, Corpus Christi and Ascension."
Some of the most outstanding religious acts on this day of Corpus Christi take place in provincial capitals such as Toledo, Granada, Seville, Valencia or Madrid, as well as in municipalities such as Fuentes de León (Badajoz), Priego de Córdoba (Córdoba) or Daroca. (Zaragoza), to cite a few examples.
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