The feast of Corpus Christi is one of the oldest in the Catholic Church and has been marked since the 13th century.
During Poland’s often-turbulent history, especially when the nation was under foreign rule for 123 years until 1918, Corpus Christi processions were strongly patriotic as well as religious in flavour.
A Corpus Christi procession in the southern Polish city of Kraków in 2020. Photo: PAP/Łukasz Gągulski
The day is a public holiday in the country.
About 92 percent of Poles declare themselves to be Catholics, according to statistics released by officials in 2022.
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Source: IAR, PAP