Blood Friday - University closed

Bloody Friday (university closed), lecture-free
 

The history of the Ride of Blood

Probably before the 16th century, the custom developed in Weingarten of holding a procession with horses on the Friday in the week of petition, i.e. the Friday after the Feast of the Ascension, carrying the relic of the Holy Blood instead of the usual cross particle. This form of blessing the land and people is still performed on the so-called Friday of the Blood. Until the 17th century, the Ride of Blood was associated with a border bypass of the Weingarten area. This involved fathers taking their sons who had come of age and slapping them in the face at prominent points. The blood ride was first mentioned in writing in 1529 and was already described as a custom “from time immemorial”.
This Upper Swabian holiday, with over 2,500 riders and just as many musicians, has long been regarded as the largest and probably oldest equestrian procession in Europe, which attracts several thousand pilgrims and visitors every year and traditionally begins on the evening of Ascension Day with a sermon in the basilica and the great candlelight procession to the Kreuzberg.