For many people it will be a wonderful feeling, so many things that can be done again for the first time after corona. The month of May is also celebrated as usual, much to the delight of Ruud Dirriwachter of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Den Bosch. With much ceremony, Mary will be taken from her chapel on Saturday evening, to ascend her ‘Month of May throne’ further down the basilica, he says. “We are very happy with that, we are allowed again, it is possible again.”
“The opening, the closing, the ceremonies, it really feels like a long time ago,” says Ruud Dirriwachter. “During the preparations, the question was regularly asked: how did we do that again. But we are ready to open the month of May on Saturday evening. We expect that tens of thousands of pilgrims will visit the Sweet Lady outside the masses again. Van den Bosch.”
“It is now possible to walk around the statue of Mary.”
Mary is wearing her new cloak, which was made at the beginning of this year. That is why a different arrangement has been chosen: “It is now possible to walk around the statue of Mary. In this way the new mantle can really be viewed from all sides. The containers where candles can be burned are now also Mary.”
Mary’s new cloak, which includes flowering cow parsley, was specially designed as a reminder of the corona period. “To underline Mary’s hopeful and comforting appearance, Margriet Luyten has made a new cloak for Mary on behalf of De Broederschap,” says the Proost of De Broederschap. “After all, you can hide under her cloak.”
“On Sunday 8 May, Mary will be carried outside.”
For the first time since the corona pandemic, the medieval prayer tour through the streets of Den Bosch will continue. “That is to say: weather permitting,” says de Proost. On Sunday, May 8, after the 12 noon mass, Mary is carried outside to begin that age-old journey.
The Brotherhood has meanwhile distributed flyers in the streets through which Mary passes during the prayer tour. “We did this to enthuse residents to proudly put out the blue and white flag, the symbol of the May month of Mary.”
“The Cloak of Hope and Consolation.”
As far as Ruud Dirriwachter is concerned, there is only one answer to the question whether Maria is still popular. “Yes! During the corona period, a lot of people came to the chapel to find comfort. Maria is very popular.”
In addition to her new cloak, a different arrangement in the cathedral, Mary will also receive a new novena candle. “On that candle, which stays lit for nine days, she is depicted in her new cloak. The cloak of Hope and Troost,” says a proud Ruud Dirriwachter.
In addition to Den Bosch, the villages of Elshout, Zegge, Aarle-Rixtel and Katwijk are also very important places of pilgrimage in May. A live stream of Mary on her temporary throne in the Bossche Sint Jan will also be broadcasted from Den Bosch all day long via a webcam.
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Maria offers comfort during the corona crisis and therefore gets a new cloak