Pilgrimage to Sainte Marie de la Mer in France
Pilgrimage to Sainte Marie de la Mer in France is held on May 24. This event in the third decade of the month May is annual. Help us
In Camargue, France, Saintes Maries de la Mer proudly welcomes Romanies, Manouches, Tziganes and Gitans who come to venerate their Saint, the Black Sara. Every year they gather on the 24th and 25th of May for the pilgrimage, and also the third weekend of October as well.
These festivals go back to the Middle Ages and their ceremonies are still the same; the crowd, candles in hand, sing and praise the Saint Marys. A procession takes Sara, the Patron saint of the Gypsies to the sea. Just before this, inside the Church, the reliquaries contining her relics have been slowly brought down from the "High Chapel" by means of a winch, in the midst of the songs and praises. The statue of Sara, carried by the Gypsies to the sea, symbolizes the waiting forand welcome of the Saints Mary Jacobe and Mary Salome.
Similar holidays and events, festivals and interesting facts
Game Festival in France on May 25 (designed to promote cooperative and non-violent games);
Mother's Day in France on May 26 (also Algeria, Dominican Republic. First Sunday of June, if Pentecost occurs on this day, Haiti, Mauritius, Morocco, Sweden, Tunisia; celebrated on the last Sunday in May);
Slavery Abolition Day on May 27 (Guadeloupe, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin);
National Resistance Day in France on May 27 (on the occasion of the anniversary of the first meeting of the National Council of Resistance);