21 August 2007

The Golden Apple

The Blessing of the Animals is over and the villagers, and of course the priests, are making their way through the archway and up into the medieval village for the sung mass in the Church of St. Barthélemy. During the ceremony, members of the comité des fêtes, accompanied by three musicians, made the traditional offering of la pomme d'or (the golden apple). This tradition started in medieval times when the nobles made an offering to the clergy and it's been continued ever since. After the mass, a procession, in which a statue of St. Barthélemy is carried aloft, goes from street to tiny street, throughout the village.

4 comments:

  1. Love the way you framed this with the large green tree on the side.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nobody gets muddy feet in your country. Not the same here. We finally got some rain and I didn't have to do my naked rain dance. Now, if I go outside I would have muddy feet. And that might speed up my Saturday-night bath if I could find the galvanized wash tub.

    Thanks for stopping by the other day.

    Brookville Daily Photo

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice set of images over the last few days and an interesting story to go with them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Jilly - am having blogging woes (see my post) so have been unable to download your photos - I can see only the top of this photo but droppped in to say hi anyhow.

    So glad you liked the dolphin photos!!!!

    ReplyDelete