Beware the Dark Lanes
If you ever visit Galicia and you decide to take a midnight stroll along a dimly lit lane that leads to a dark forest path, where the black shadows of the trees play hide and seek with the stars, take a small cross with you. And if you hear chants or a bell or smell wax, or if between the trees you see luminous shapes approach with someone bearing a cross in front of them, hide. If the person offers you the cross, simply say, "I already have one," and show him the one you are carrying. If one of the luminous shapes offers you a candle, do not accept it, but rather pray and start running. You will have been approached by the Santa Compaña.
The Santa Compaña is a legend that is slowly dying out as the people who profess to have seen it become older and die. In the mountainous areas of Galicia and Asturias there are still people who claim to have seen it maybe thirty years ago, but the introduction of street lights have banished ghosts and legends. The Compaña (or Güestia or Genti de Muerti or Hoste) is supposed to be a procession of souls that travel to claim other souls, generally of people already on their death beds or that will die within the year. Not everyone can see the procession, only those that have erroneously been baptized using the oils for Extreme Unction or that simply have a gift (?!) for seeing what should not be seen.
The Compaña is made up of two lines of barefoot souls, each dressed in a white shroud and carrying a candle. The procession is led by a living person that carries a cross like those used in processions at Mass and a pail of holy water. This person will have accepted the cross from the previous leader and is condemned to head the procession every night, remembering nothing about it during the day. As the nights wear on, this mortal will become weaker and weaker until he dies or he passes the cross on to another living person, upon which he will recover. The souls sing chants such as are sung at funerals and for the dead and ring a little bell at intervals. In some areas they say that the souls carry a coffin. The body inside will be that of the next person to die and join their host. At their passing, dogs will howl and animals will run off or hide. Generally, when they are seen it means that there will be a death in the village.
The origins are sketchy. Some believe it is a version of the Wild Hunt of northern Europe, where they were considered harbingers of catastrophes. Others believe that they are what is left of beliefs in natural spirits, displaced by the Church into becoming souls of Purgatory waiting for someone to pray for them to be released into Paradise. The truth is, legends of the Compaña are mostly contained to the northwest of the Iberian peninsula. From northern Extramadura to León, Asturias, and Galicia is where the belief once held sway. Now, however, it is considered mostly a Galician legend.
That's what it has become now, a legend. From a once firm belief in spirits that roamed the lanes, doing mischief to whomever was not wise enough to avoid walking along the paths at night, to a costume to wear at Carnival or folk festivals. My daughter and her companions in their amateur theater group once dressed up as the Compaña on the day devoted to local traditions during the festival of Guadalupe. They carried the coffin (which had been made by my daughter for another school carnival) and candles and wore white robes with hoods. Scary sight. Another time, while I was still single, a group of friends dressed up as the Compaña with lit candles showed up at the disco, from whence they were shown to the door. At least the manager was safety-conscious. But that experience was separated from the one described by my mother by only about eighty years.
My mother remembered that my grandmother had told her about my great-grandfather and how he had died young. Apparently it had happened shortly after, when coming home one night, he had been shoved into a stream by the spirits of the Compaña. My grandmother had talked about how her mother had cried many nights by the fire, lamenting that he had died and left her to raise their children by herself, tough for a woman in those times. And he had died because he had been touched by the Compaña. Or that is what my grandmother and great-grandmother believed. And what my mother told me.
Street lights are the killers of legends.
The Santa Compaña is a legend that is slowly dying out as the people who profess to have seen it become older and die. In the mountainous areas of Galicia and Asturias there are still people who claim to have seen it maybe thirty years ago, but the introduction of street lights have banished ghosts and legends. The Compaña (or Güestia or Genti de Muerti or Hoste) is supposed to be a procession of souls that travel to claim other souls, generally of people already on their death beds or that will die within the year. Not everyone can see the procession, only those that have erroneously been baptized using the oils for Extreme Unction or that simply have a gift (?!) for seeing what should not be seen.
The Compaña is made up of two lines of barefoot souls, each dressed in a white shroud and carrying a candle. The procession is led by a living person that carries a cross like those used in processions at Mass and a pail of holy water. This person will have accepted the cross from the previous leader and is condemned to head the procession every night, remembering nothing about it during the day. As the nights wear on, this mortal will become weaker and weaker until he dies or he passes the cross on to another living person, upon which he will recover. The souls sing chants such as are sung at funerals and for the dead and ring a little bell at intervals. In some areas they say that the souls carry a coffin. The body inside will be that of the next person to die and join their host. At their passing, dogs will howl and animals will run off or hide. Generally, when they are seen it means that there will be a death in the village.
The origins are sketchy. Some believe it is a version of the Wild Hunt of northern Europe, where they were considered harbingers of catastrophes. Others believe that they are what is left of beliefs in natural spirits, displaced by the Church into becoming souls of Purgatory waiting for someone to pray for them to be released into Paradise. The truth is, legends of the Compaña are mostly contained to the northwest of the Iberian peninsula. From northern Extramadura to León, Asturias, and Galicia is where the belief once held sway. Now, however, it is considered mostly a Galician legend.
That's what it has become now, a legend. From a once firm belief in spirits that roamed the lanes, doing mischief to whomever was not wise enough to avoid walking along the paths at night, to a costume to wear at Carnival or folk festivals. My daughter and her companions in their amateur theater group once dressed up as the Compaña on the day devoted to local traditions during the festival of Guadalupe. They carried the coffin (which had been made by my daughter for another school carnival) and candles and wore white robes with hoods. Scary sight. Another time, while I was still single, a group of friends dressed up as the Compaña with lit candles showed up at the disco, from whence they were shown to the door. At least the manager was safety-conscious. But that experience was separated from the one described by my mother by only about eighty years.
My mother remembered that my grandmother had told her about my great-grandfather and how he had died young. Apparently it had happened shortly after, when coming home one night, he had been shoved into a stream by the spirits of the Compaña. My grandmother had talked about how her mother had cried many nights by the fire, lamenting that he had died and left her to raise their children by herself, tough for a woman in those times. And he had died because he had been touched by the Compaña. Or that is what my grandmother and great-grandmother believed. And what my mother told me.
Street lights are the killers of legends.
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