Human Flower Project

Sunday, October 14, 2007

On a Pillar, on a Flower Mountain

In Zaragoza, Spain, which marks Columbus Day (October 12) by honoring the Virgin of Pilar, citizen pilgrims build a floral pyramid.

Workers arrange
floral offerings to
the Virgin of Pilar,
Zaragoza, Spain
Photo: Luis Correas, for Reuters

In the Baptist Church of the U.S.A., they recommend a lot of hoisting: “Lift Me Up!"..."Lift up His Name!” For heights, though, the American Baptists could learn many meters-worth from the Roman Catholics of Spain. Anybody who’s stood in Madrid’s Plaza Mayor or walked uphill to the Cathedral in Toledo knows what we mean, as do those who’ve had the blessed fortune to participate in Zaragoza’s autumn celebration of the Virgin del Pilar.

According to Catholic teaching, the Virgin Mary appeared to St. James the Apostle as he preached and prayed by the banks of the Ebro. “She appeared upon a pillar”—a holy object, which is kept inside Zaragoza’s present-day basilica. Each October, the wooden statue and its column of jasper come into the city center, to stand at the top of a tall scaffolding. Then, local citizens, dressed in traditional costumes of Old Spain, parade through the streets bringing flowers to cover the huge armature, so that it turns into a brilliant floral throne. Now that’s being “lifted up”!

Children dressed in Spanish folk costume dance before the floral ofrenda
dedicated to Nuestra Señora Del Pilar, Zaragoza, Spain
Photo: Ususarios

The sacred column itself stands atop a large pedestal of all white flowers (shaped sort of like a fez); it is emblazoned with red blooms formed into the symbol known across Spain as the Cross of St. James. (Non-Spaniards may recognize this symbol from Velazquez’s famous painting Las Meninas. Velazquez was admitted to the Order of St. James by Philip IV and wears the emblem proudly on his chest.)

Though the birthplace and ethnicity of Christopher Columbus remain in question, his commission from Spanish royals Ferdinand and Isabella is certain. Therefore, Columbus Day, when he set foot in the New World and “claimed it” for the Spanish Empire, has been a day of Hispanic pride since the 15th century. In Spain itself, October 12 is Dia de la Raza (Hispanic Day), celebrated with traditional songs and costumes. As for the Virgin del Pilar, according to wiki, ”Every Latin-American nation has donated national vestments for the fifteenth century statue of the Virgin, which is housed in the chapel.”

Spanish ambition and aesthetics both seem contingent upon SCALE. Cristobal Colon, whoever he was, crossed a whole ocean. And Nuestra Señora Del Pilar, only 39 cm. high, stands on top of a floral mountain.