Ascension Day, a Festive Time in Medieval Bruges

On Ascension Day, May 28 this year in the Catholic calendar, one of the oldest and most beautiful towns in Europe is transformed into a brilliant biblical and medieval kaleidoscope.

Bruges celebrates with a procession to venerate a relic said by Roman Catholic tradition to contain the blood of Christ. The vial has been enshrined in the ancient town for more than seven centuries.

Thousands of Roman Catholics and members of many other religions flock to the town on that day, swelling its population of 120,000 to the bursting point. It is a festive time, and the town’s citizens are primed to handle it.

Souvenir stands, lace booths and food stalls along the street abound, and in addition to the wonderful regional foods, vendors sell hot dogs and hamburgers (that somehow do not taste like the American variety).

Bruges, about 70 miles northwest of Brussels, offers handmade Belgian lace, Flemish works of art, centuries-old architecture, beautiful parks, fine restaurants and inns, and low-country canals, in addition to its various religious festivals.

One of the Oldest

Antiquity is the name of the game here. The town hall, which dates to the 12th Century, is generally considered the oldest in the low countries and one of the oldest in Europe.

About the latest thing to be built on the town square was the Law Court, constructed in the early 1700s. In the Basilica of the Holy Blood, which consists of two chapels, one built over the other, the lower, St. Basil’s, was founded in the 10th Century.

St. John’s Hospital was built in the 12th Century and was one of the oldest active hospitals in Europe until 1977, when it was transferred to a modern building on the outskirts of town. It now serves as an art and relics museum.

During the 14th Century, victims of the plague were housed in its lower rooms, which border one of the town’s picturesque canals, and the rooms appear much as they did in the past.

The procession draws large numbers of prominent clergymen, both Roman Catholic and those of other faiths. Pope John Paul II, as recently as five years before he was chosen to be Pope, took part in the celebration by helping to carry the reliquary along the entire parade route.

The relic, which tradition says was brought to Bruges more than 700 years ago by a Count of Flanders, is kept in a chapel in the Burg, the seat of Bruges’ Noble Fraternity of the Holy Blood.

The Count of Flanders, tradition continues, was given the relic by the Patriarch of Jerusalem during the Second Crusade. The metal cylinder containing the relic is housed in a reliquary made of gold and silver encrusted with precious stones. The 17th-Century reliquary is credited to a regionally noted artisan named Jan Crabbe.

The town seems quiet and normal on the several days immediately before and after the procession. But on Ascension Day, rows and rows of chairs appear, as if by magic, on sidewalks and curbs of each street along the route of the procession. The chairs are used by the merchants and residents in front of whose property they sit, and their friends. Other street-side chairs and seats in two grandstands are rented for about $1.50.

Vantage points on the second floors of some shops and restaurants go for up to $20, well worth the unobstructed view of the procession and with access to the generally good food and drink of Bruge’s downtown restaurants. We chose the second floor of a fine restaurant on the north side of the square and enjoyed a first-class view of the procession and a fine lunch.

The procession begins at the Basilica of the Holy Blood at 3 p.m. sharp and requires roughly two hours to pass. The first part of the procession depicts the biblical history of man, ranging from Adam’s and Eve’s fall from grace to Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

The second part portrays the entry into Bruges of the Flemish count and his mounted retinue carrying the relic.

It would seem that more than half of the town is involved in some way with the procession. Hundreds of children and teen-agers in brilliant costumes march along, offering dramatic scenes mimed, spoken, played and sung. Bands and choirs are interspersed among the procession and colorful floats depict scenes from Jesus’ life.

Beautiful horses--scores of them--carrying crusaders, royalty and burghers prance before and after platoons of Roman soldiers, medieval troops armed with crossbows and the joyous crowds that accompanied Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

When the procession has wound its way to the disbanding point in late afternoon, the old streets of Bruges are quiet and tranquil again, the rows of chairs disappear, and the crowds head home or to hotels for the evening meal. All that remains are the colorful banners lining the streets and the normal residue left behind by a large crowd.

Points of Interest

Other religious points of interest in the town include St. Basil’s Chapel, a Romanesque building built in the 12th Century and containing the 14th-Century masterpiece of “Our Lady of Charity,” also known as one of the more famous Pietas, and the “Ecce Homo” statue of the bound Christ, a major example of the art of woodcarving for which the Bruges area is well-known.

The Gruuthuse Palace complex near the square contains several museums including the palace, and is dominated by Our Lady’s Church, which contains, along with the tombs of Maria of Burgundy and Charles the Bold, a white marble statute of Madonna and Child. It was created in 1503-04 by Michelangelo and is one of the few marble statues by him that can be viewed outside Italy.

For further information, contact Belgian National Tourist Office, 745 Fifth Ave., New York 10151.