At 11:00 am local time, following a mass celebrated at John the Baptist's Cathedral in Warsaw, the main procession of a few thousand people started leading through the Old Town to Piłsudski Square.
The Catholic faithful in Poland traditionally attend Mass and then embark on a procession of the Blessed Sacrament carried aloft throughout the procession, while the faithful sing.
Thousands of worshippers also took to the streets of towns and villages across Poland in religious processions on Thursday.
Almost each parish in Poland organises such procession on Corpus Christi
The procession route is decorated with flower petals and the windows and balconies of the houses are decorated with holy images and flowers.
Participants of each procession, in some regions dressed in traditional regional costumes, carry banners and feretrons depicting saints.
The Polish tradition of arranging flower carpets for Corpus Christi processions has been put on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
In this staunchly Catholic country where nearly 92 percent of citizens identify as religious and nearly half attend church weekly, processions are attended by thousands, as the feast is one of the most important in the Roman Catholic Church.
With the Corpus Christi public holiday, many workplaces have given their employees time off to enjoy what is another long weekend in the country this spring.
Thus, Poland is set to shift into low gear for the rest of the week as many people expect to enjoy an extended break from work amid warm weather.
(mo)
Source: PAP