Infiorata not only in Spello
The Infiorata is celebrated on the day of Corpus Domini, the feast of Corpus Cristi. This is a religious Catholic feast that for obvious reasons doesn’t go by without being noticed in Italy. In Umbria, the town of Spello is famous for its flower exhibitions during Corpus Domini: the so-called Infiorata. But other villages and towns do also exhibit wonderful flower decorations. For instance, in my little home town of Tuoro sul Trasimeno where I made the pictures for the presentation in this blog.
Celebration of Corpus Domini
Not all of you will know what Corpus Domini is all about and to be honest, nor did I. I looked it up on Wikipedia where it says that the feast of Corpus Cristi is “celebrating the tradition and belief in the body and blood of Jesus Christ and his Real Presence in the Eucharist. It is also celebrated in some Anglican, Lutheran, and Old Catholic Churches that hold similar beliefs regarding the Real Presence”.
On the day of Corpus Domini, after church, a procession goes through town where the inhabitants have already started in the early hours of the day to decorate the streets with flowers. In Spello, these are really artistic decorations, but also in my home town, it is quite impressive. It is every year a lot of effort and work, but it is lovely to see how a whole community participates.
Beautiful, what a labor of love. The flowers must wilt quickly in the heat. What happens if it is a windy day?
It simply blows away. Luckily it does not happen a lot at this time of the year, but some years ago there was a strong wind and it was impossible to even try to make the decorations. Such a shame. There is also somebody passing by all the time with a waterpomp to keep the flowers in decent shape until the procession has passed by.