Corpus Christi is one of the most traditional and most attended festivals in La Garriga.
The Corpus Christi Festival is the most traditional festival that is celebrated continuously in the municipality, the first written reference to Corpus Christi in La Garriga is from 1816. It is currently a popular, religious and cultural festival, one of the festivals with the highest participation by citizens and with the greatest impact on people who visit us.
The celebration of Corpus Christi has medieval origins (13th century). The festival was established by Christianity, taking advantage of ancient rituals of worship of nature in order to be adapted for the public veneration of the sacrament of the Eucharist (Corpus Christi) in the form of a procession that passes on carpets made of floral elements.
This tradition of ancient pagan rituals with those of religion are still present in the procession where giants, bestiary, devils and other elements of our intangible cultural heritage coexist, making a respectful coexistence between secular and religious culture necessary.
ACTIVITY SCHEDULE
The events of the Corpus Christi festival of the Garriga are from the Thursday of Corpus Christi until Sunday. The 2025 Corpus Christi dates are from June 19 to 22.
THE ORIGIN OF THE CORPUS FESTIVAL
We must place the origin of the festival in the Middle Ages when, in 1262, Pope Urban IV instituted the festival that should serve the Church for the public veneration of the Eucharist, exalting the doctrine of the body of Christ, against the unbelievers and detractors.
As Joan Amades (1988) stated, it would serve to try to make the profane celebrations of pagan origin disappear, aimed at propitiating harvests and protecting the fields. But it is mainly from 1316, with a bull of Pope John XII, when it spreads throughout the Christian territories, spreading throughout Europe and gaining importance over time.
Proof of this is that almost seven centuries after its institution by Pope Urbà IV, despite the change in values it implies, the Corpus Christi festival continues to be a religious, social, cultural and festive event of great significance.
In Catalonia, the first documented edition of the Feast of Corpus Christi is in Barcelona, in the year 1320. The Council of Cent invites the people to participate and thus for all those who attend the events, the Holy Father will grant them numerous indulgences: that for the honor and glory of God Our Lord and the exaltation of the Christian faith, on the second Thursday after Cinquagesma a procession be made, in which the Sacred Body of Jesus Christ is carried everywhere and forever".
In the early days it seems that the celebration was limited to the interior of temples and cloisters; according to Amades it is the year 1323 when he goes out into the street, where the councilors and prohoms order everyone to party and the good atmosphere reigns as for the Easter and Christmas parties. They command that the streets be well cleaned and swept and covered with rushes and boga; the doors of the houses and the facades covered with branches "as well as possible".
The first written reference to Corpus de la Garriga is from 1816 and it is currently one of the festivals with the highest participation by citizens and with the most resonance for visitors.
PROCESSION RELIGIOUS AND PAGAN TRADITION OF THE FESTIVAL
When leaving the Solemn Service of Corpus Christi and after the blessing on the steps of the church, the procession leaves, with the Blessed Sacrament leaving at the end of the whole ensemble. Traditionally, carpets were used to decorate the floor for the Corpus Christi procession.
Little by little, the pagan tradition recovered by introducing the popular classes to the religious festivity, bringing the festival to all sensibilities.
Currently, the Corpus Christi festival is a festive and popular event, antecedent of the current parades, retinues and hors d'oeuvres of the main festival. In the procession, devils, giants, tadpoles and Corpus Christi dances play a prominent role.
It is in the procession where there is a balance between the Catholic and popular tradition of the festival.
CARPETS OF FLOWERS AND FRAMEWORKS
The flower carpets made around the Corpus Christi festival are par excellence a manifestation of intangible cultural heritage within the scope of social practices, rituals and festive events. It is a living and dynamic expression of ephemeral art, which is recreated year after year in the public space in a festive and playful context where the participation of people of different ages means that knowledge can be transmitted from generation to generation.
It consists of decorating the streets of the municipality with natural elements, basically flowers, recreating various designs and forming long carpets along which the procession and its entourage will circulate.
About thirty carpets adorn the streets of the historic center of La Garriga, made with plant elements, especially carnations and broom flowers but also cypress, earth and rice husk.
The first floral carpet said to have been made by the modernist architect Manuel Raspall was in 1928 in Plaça de Santa Isabel.
In 2015, the flower carpets of the Corpus Christi festival in La Garriga were declared Traditional Festive Element of National Interest, as a display of ephemeral floral art.
The branches or branches, following the tradition of the texts of Joan Amades described at the beginning of this writing, are made of native reeds that decorate some houses in the center of the town with green leaves.
L'OU COM BALLA (THE DANCING EGG)
The dancing egg consists of placing an empty egg, with a dot of wax to cover the hole through which it has been emptied, over the jet of water from a fountain fountain, so that it spins without drop. The fountain is usually decorated with flowers, carnations, brooms and green leaves.
The most common interpretation is that the egg represents the consecrated wafer, the shape of the water the chalice of the blood of Christ, and the flowers that adorn it the same blood of Christ.
Other interpretations, directly related to the representation of the sacred form, point to the representation of the fullness of spring, since both the egg, as well as the water or the abundance of flowers are symbolic interpretations of fecundity and regeneration, own of the spring season in full vitality.
In La Garriga, the AFA of the Puigracios school is in charge of making the egg as it dances.
CORPUS SONG AND VIDEO
The theme is composed by the singer-songwriter Joan Garriga and the participation of more than a hundred musicians, singers and artists through a lyric that explains everything that is most relevant about the Feast of Corpus Christi.
Cellos, double basses, guitars, drums, trombones, accordions, voices, among many other instruments, recording in the Fournier sound studio with Iñaki Marquiegui as arranger and Marçal Ramon in production.
The video shows several emblematic places of the Garriga such as Casa Raspall, Can Nualart, the Roman villa of Can Terrers or the air raid shelter. It is an audiovisual and geographical tour by filmmaker Joan Giralt that shows the cultural value of the Garriga.
