Blu are bleeding 2025: Weingarten celebrates Europe's largest rider procession!

Blu are bleeding 2025: Weingarten celebrates Europe's largest rider procession!

Weingarten, Deutschland - On May 30, 2025, the traditional blood Friday takes place in Weingarten, an important event that is considered the highest holiday in the city. Around 2000 pilgrims are expected the day after Ascension Day. The participants who are dressed in tails and cylinders are accompanied by Holy Blood riders and Dean Ekkehard Schmid, who bears the Holy Blood Reliquary, a gold-plated cross with gemstones and earth mixed blood of Jesus Christ. Blueplink is considered the largest rider procession in Europe and not only attracts numerous pilgrims, but also guests of honor from the region.

Blue head starts at 7 a.m. with the handover of the Holy Blood reliquary on the church portal in Abteistrasse. A reception of the relic in the outer monastery courtyard takes place at 11.15 a.m., followed by a final blessing and the Te Deum. The highlight of the festival is the Pontifical Office at 11.30 a.m., which is led by Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann from Speyer. The celebrations end with a single blessing at 3:30 p.m.

special guests and traditions

This year Bishop Wiesemann and Manuel Hagel, the CDU top candidate for the state election, are present as political guests of honor. Hail will take part in the procession. Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann will be at the town hall balcony and accompanied by his wife Gerlinde. The procession also includes numerous music bands and a delegation from Weingarten's Italian partner city Mantua, which takes part in this tradition every year. Women have also been able to participate in the procession since 2022, which leads to a further enrichment of the event.

The leading word of the blood Friday 2025 is "pilgrim of hope", which Pope Francis proclaimed for the Holy Year 2025. Bishop Wiesemann emphasizes that the event is an opportunity to testify to Jesus Christ as a source of hope. Blu are bleeding a long story that goes back to 804 when the relic was discovered in Mantua and was later kept in Weingarten. The baroque basilica on the Martinsberg, framed by a monastery complex, is a central place of the event in which the relic is kept.

course of the celebrations

The celebrations begin the day before, May 29, 2025, with a sermon in the basilica at 8:30 p.m. The bloodstream itself starts on May 30th at 7:00 a.m. and comprises several rituals, including the pilgrimage at 9:00 a.m. and the return of the Holy Blood reliquary to the basilica at 11.15 a.m. The blood Friday thus ties in to a centuries -old pilgrimage tradition and sets a sign of community, peace and hope.

A total of around 1,800 riders and thousands of footwall drivers are expected, who keep the heir to the city of Weingarten alive on this special holiday.