Echternach Dancing Procession
The Echternach Dancing Procession
Fifty days after Easter, on the Tuesday of the week following Whitsuntide or Pentecost, a strange medieval ritual is performed in the village of Echternach. Located on the eastern border of Luxembourg, Echternach is dominated by the Benedictine abbey of saint Willibrord first established there in the seventh century. This abbey, once a medieval scriptorium famous for producing illuminated copies of religious texts, houses the remains of saint Willibrord in its crypt and is the focus of the peculiar “dancing procession”.
Echternach
Echternach Dancing Procession Photo
The unusual custom began in the fourteenth or fifteenth century in connection with the annual tithe processions. People from all parishes under the jurisdiction of the abbey would walk to Echternach during the Whitsuntide holidays bearing their offerings. Historical references mention that pilgrims from the village of Waxweiler would perform a sort of “hopping dance” as they proceeded to the abbey.
Dancing Procession Every Spring on Whit Tuesday, this medieval procession is repeated. Following a pontifical mass, a procession of pilgrims wend their way through the streets of Echternach and back to the tomb of Saint Willibrord in the crypt of the basilica. The participants cover the entire route slowly hopping from one foot to the other in time to an endlessly repeated melody supplied by groups of musicians.
The procession usually includes dozens of musical groups repeating the same ancient melody for hours while several thousand pilgrims perform the hopping dance along the route. This unusual festival draws tens of thousands of spectators.
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