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procession, in Christianity, organized body of people advancing in formal or ceremonial manner as an element of Christian ritual or as a less official expression of popular piety. Public processions seem to have come into vogue soon after the recognition of Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire by Constantine in the 4th century.
Of the vast number of processions that developed during the Middle Ages, some of the more important still have a place in the ritual of the Roman Catholic Church. They include ordinary processions, held on certain yearly festivals throughout the universal church and on other days according to the customs of the local churches, and extraordinary processions, held for special occasions (e.g., to pray for rain or good weather, in time of storm, famine, plague, war, and other disasters). Other processions characteristic of certain localities, though not regulated so strictly by the church and considered nonliturgical, play an important part in the religious life of the people; in the United States, for example, May processions are sometimes conducted in honour of the Virgin Mary.
The Major Rogation procession (April 25), a penitential observance with the object of obtaining God’s blessing on crops that have been planted, seems to have been adopted from one of the festivals in the pagan calendar of Rome. The Minor Rogations, observed on the three days before the Feast of the Ascension, date from the 5th century. The procession on Candlemas (February 2), which includes the blessing and carrying of candles, might well be another instance of the church’s subrogating a pagan procession. Another procession with a long history is that celebrated on Palm Sunday, commemorating the triumphant entrance of Christ into Jerusalem.
Processions have been a part of the Roman Catholic eucharistic liturgy (mass) at the entrance rite and at the offertory rite, when the bread and wine to be used in the liturgy are brought up to the altar. Although these processions were discontinued at the end of the Middle Ages, strong efforts have been made by liturgists in the 20th century to reintroduce them to promote participation by the people. Processions associated with the adoration of the eucharistic Host, which are all of late origin, include those at the beginning and closing of the Forty Hours’ devotion, on the Feast of Corpus Christi, and on Holy Thursday.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, two noteworthy processions connected with the celebration of the Eucharist are the “little entrance” before the reading of the Gospel and the “great entrance” before the eucharistic prayer, when the offerings of bread and wine are carried in a more elaborate procession. The separation of the people from the sanctuary by a solid wall known as the iconostasis has tended to concentrate their devotion on these processions.
Following the Protestant Reformation, processions associated with the eucharistic Host and those honouring the Virgin Mary and the saints were abolished. Processions vanished from the Reformed churches in response to John Calvin’s demand for simplicity in worship. The Lutheran Church in some localities has retained the ancient rogation processions during the week before Whitsunday and, in some cases, during the month of May. In the Anglican churches, the funeral procession, processional litanies, and the solemn entrance of the clergy and choir are still retained.
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