Day 7 - the Pilgrim's Mass

The capstone of the Camino trip is the noon Pilgrims' Mass. The entire church is packed with people from all over the world who have made the trek through Spain to Santiago de Compostela.

We were very lucky that this day, the ceremony included the Botofumiero -- it's extremely rare that it's used, and this is only on major feast days.

The Botofumiero is an enormous incense burner that's the size of a man. It's suspended from the ceiling of the cathedral. At the end of mass, it takes six men pulling on ropes to operate it. They fire it up, and one jumps on it to start it swinging. By alternately pulling on the ropes the six men send it flying over the crowd, with it nearly touching the ceiling. It spews incense, and you can see the fire blazing inside. It's quite a show. (Which they don't let you take photos of...)

But here's the Botofumiero at rest -- it's entirely made of silver.