Santa Compaña
The Santa Compaña ( Holy Companion ) is a popular myth that is common in the rural areas of Galicia and Asturias . At the center of the sometimes legendary performances is a procession of the dead, ghosts or restless souls that roam the paths of a community at night and visit all the houses in which the death of a person is imminent.
The Santa Compaña is one of the traditions deeply rooted in the mythology of Galicia and Asturias and can be found, sometimes with a different name, in all epochs of Asturian-Galician cultural history. Beyond the Christian forms, ideas of the Celtic belief in the afterlife probably play a determining role, so that forerunners of this myth may have come to this area with the Celtic tribe of the Gallaekers . The written record began in the 19th century with the emergence of ethnological interest against the background of Romanticism in Galicia. In 1876 the linguist J. Cuveiro Piñol mentions them in the first Castilian-Galician dictionary, the Diccionario Gallego .
The Santa Compaña and the reports of its appearance are researched at the chairs of psychology and anthropology at the University of Santiago de Compostela and at the Centro de Investigaciones Psicobiofísicas de Vigo , a private, state-recognized institute for research into parapsychology .
Description and quirks
The descriptions of the Santa Compaña vary in the different regions to such an extent that a precise definition of the many local characteristics seems difficult because of the many local characteristics. However, all versions agree that the appearance of the Santa Compaña is a sign of death, a sign of calamity or a curse. According to tradition, the Santa Compaña appears around
- to claim the soul of someone who is about to die
- To confront people with wrongdoing committed
- to announce the death of an acquaintance
- to fulfill a punishment imposed by some otherworldly authority.
The most common is the description of a train of restless souls roaming through the night, barefoot, dressed in white, tunic-like cloaks and hoods, the cloaks being supposed to be shrouds. Cases were also mentioned where the Santa Compaña carried a coffin with them. The body in the coffin could possibly be the astral body of the person encountered in the procession.
It is also described that the spirits walk in two rows, each with a burning candle. Once the procession has passed, there is a smell of burnt candle wax in the air. While running, the procession prays, usually the rosary , sings songs for the dead and rings a small bell. Shortly before the train passes, all the sounds of the forest and its animals die.
The procession is partly led by a “main spirit”, called Estadea, but mostly, carrying a cross and a holy water vessel, by a living person who cannot remember his nightly activities the next day. You can recognize those punished in this way by their extraordinary slimness and their pale complexion. It is said that there is no rest from this role, so that they shine brighter and brighter at night and become increasingly pale during the day. Those affected fall ill, weakened by such exertions, without the real cause of the illness being recognizable. But with no way of escaping their function, they have to wander through the night until they die or can hand over the cross and holy water vessel to another. The gender of the person who moves ahead depends on whether the church of the congregation is consecrated to a female or a male saint.
Appearance and perceptibility
In general, the Santa Compaña is seen at night, but sometimes even when the day is out at dusk. Some dates are apparently especially predestined for their appearance: the night of All Saints' Day , from November 1st to 2nd, or St. John's Night , from June 23rd to 24th.
The Santa Compaña can appear anywhere, but it was seen or noticed particularly often at crossroads and near the cemeteries.
Regarding the visibility of the train, it is said that not all mortals can visually perceive the Compaña. Most of them can only feel or guess at the ghost procession, for example through the noticeable movement of air when passing by and through the smell of the candle wax. Elisardo Becoña Iglesias, professor of psychology at the University of Santiago de Compostela , explains in his book “La Santa Compaña, El Urco y Los Muertos” that popular belief allows only a few specially “gifted” people to see the nocturnal processions. These include adults who were baptized with the oil of the anointing of the dead instead of water as children because of a priestly error.
At the Centro de Investigaciones Psicobiofísicas in Vigo, however, there has recently been a sharp decline in reports of apparitions.
Protection from the Santa Compaña
With the telling of the legend, the protective measures are usually also conveyed. In the event that society appears to him, the person concerned should complete a series of rituals or at least one of them:
- move away from the path of the compaña, do not look, pretend not to see them
- draw a circle with the star of Solomon or a cross and stand in this circle
- pray and listen neither to the voices nor to the noises of the compaña
- Throw your face to the ground and lie motionless, even if the Compaña passes over it
- Under no circumstances should you take one of the candles or anything else that you may be handed from the train, otherwise you would become part of the procession and would have to go ahead.
If nothing else helps, a quick run is recommended as a last resort.
The stone crosses known as Cruceiro , which are often found at crossroads in Galicia, are also supposed to provide protection . The Cruz Bonaval in the Compestelaner district of San Pedro not far from the Porta del Camino is assigned exactly this function.
Thematic and regional variations inside and outside Spain
Varying names and zones of their distribution:
- as da noite: those who come out of the night, Galicia
- Avisóns
- Bona Xente: good souls, in Asturias
- Compaña: shortened form
- Cortejo de gente de muerte, (in some) following of the dead, Extremadura
- Estatinga or estadinga: derived from Latin hostes antiquus: old enemy, a synonym for the devil, Galicia
- Estadea: possibly abraded form of «estadal», a candle placed near the dead, and the like. a. common in Zamora
- Güestia: common in Asturias
- Güéspeda
- Hoste: Host, Galicia.
- La hueste de ánimas: Host of souls, in parts of the province of León
- Procesión das ánimas: Soul procession, in the south of Galicia, especially in Ourense .
- Pantalla: after Vicente Risco mixing of the terms Pantasma : spirit and Espantallo , Galicia.
- Pantaruxada: rarely used, Galicia
- Rolda
- Santa Compaña: mostly in Northern Galicia.
- Visión: in this case synonymous with appearance.
- Visita: German: visit, clear reference to the intention of your appearance.
La Güestia - The Santa Compaña in the Asturian tradition
Outside Galicia, the Santa Compaña is deeply rooted in Asturias under the name La Güestia . It is also known there under the name Bona Xente. It is described as a group of hooded people who come to the house of a doomed sick person, circling it three times, whereupon the sick person dies. Mostly it should be friends of the dying person who have already died.
Cortejo de gente de muerte - Extremadura
In Extremadura there is a legend under the name Cortejo de gente de muerte - Entourage of the Dead , that two ghostly horsemen were responsible for the dawn in the extreme villages. Those who see them may pay with their lives.
La Estadea - Zamora
In Zamora , it is a woman who walks faceless and smelling of the dampness of the graves on paths and cemeteries. While it is called La Estadea in Zamora, it is called La hueste de ánimas in the neighboring Leonese areas. She, too, only appears to people who will soon die.
Procesión das Xás
A related phenomenon in Galician mythology is the Procesión das Xás / das Xans . Unlike the Santa Compaña, these are not the spirits of the dead, but those of living people.
Northwest and Central Europe
There are also legends about ghost and funerary processions outside of the Iberian Peninsula. The dead of the Celtic legend move to submarine realms or to islands that lie beyond the horizon. In some Central European regions there is a legend about wild hunting .
Current references to the Santa Compaña
In a comic book for the Spanish magazine El Jueves , the cartoonist Pedro Vera has the characters Ortega y Pacheco join the Santa Compaña in order not to have to hear the songs that the pop singer Juan Pardo (No me hables) sings in the middle of the forest. Various Galician musicians and bands have released pieces under the title Santa Compaña : u. a. Xose Manuel Budino (gaitero / bagpiper), Mägo de Oz (folk metal), Ordo Funebris and Xeque Mate.
In Galicia, under the name Santa Compaña, a cream liqueur is produced on the basis of the Orujo pomace schnapps ( Crema de Orujo ). Likewise, in Galician souvenir shops you can find pictures depicting the Santa Compaña.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ J. Cuveiro Piñol, Diccionario Gallego, Barcelona, 1876: Compaña: entre o vulgo, creída hoste ou procesión de bruxas que andan de noite alumeadas con osos de mortos, chamando ás portas para que as acompañen, aos que desexan que morran axiña ...
- ↑ Elisardo Becoña Iglesias, “La Santa Compaña, El Urco y Los Muertos”, La Coruña, 1980
- ^ Paula Cristobo, La Santa Compaña. Entre el mito, la realidad y la superstición
- ↑ http://santiago-de-compostela.costasur.com/de/cruz-bonaval.html
literature
- Elisardo Becoña Iglesias: La Santa Compaña, El Urco y Los Muertos . La Coruña 1980, ISBN 84-300-7376-0 .
- Carmelo Lisón Tolosana: La Santa Compaña . Akal, ISBN 84-460-2164-1 .
- Xoán M. Paredes: Curiosities across the Atlantic: a brief summary of some of the Irish-Galician classical folkloric similarities nowadays. Galician singularities for the Irish, in Chimera, no.15 . University College Cork (Ireland), 2000.
