Go niche

WHAT WOULD humankind be without its devotion to rituals? Over the years, Go Niche has stumbled upon all sorts of weird and wonderful ones well worth seeing, from baby-jumping in Northern Spain to land diving in Vanuatu.

Today we get to add Luxembourg’s “Hopping Procession”. It takes place 50 days after Easter each year in Echternach, the tiny country’s oldest city, and it was first documented in 1100.

It originated as a way to celebrate St Willibrord, the founder of the abbey there and a man who was thought to be capable of curing certain illnesses, possibly blisters.

As of last year, the procession has been given special status from Unesco as an example of intangible heritage.

But in the early days, not even the Catholic Church was too sure of it. Successive processions were banned on account of being too “pagan”.

The hopping was not for stopping, however, because despite church opposition it grew in popularity and was even replicated in other cities.

Today, the procession begins in the early morning, in the courtyard of the ancient abbey, with some of the highest ecclesiastical authorities in the country – and from other countries too – taking part in a religious service.

Then about 13,000 of them hop their way through the streets of Echternach from the courtyard back to the tomb of the saint, buried in the crypt below.

Hopping is perhaps a misnomer. It’s not that people hop the entire way on one foot, rather that they hop from one foot to the other, in a kind of slow dance.

However, given that by one report the procession used to involve participants taking three hops forward and two hops back, the new step does represent progress.

• unesco.org