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Document Details : Title: De Ommegang van Pasen en het spel van Onze-Lieve-Vrouw te Mechelen in de vijftiende eeuw Subtitle: 'Civic Religion' in een laatmiddeleeuwse stad Author(s): HÜSKEN, Wim Journal: Ons Geestelijk Erf Volume: 94 Issue: 4 Date: 2024 Pages: 338-395 DOI: 10.2143/OGE.94.4.3294383 Abstract : The involvement of civic authorities with local annual processions has been identified as a form of ‘civic religion’. Mechelen’s annual Ommegang (procession), on the Wednesday after Easter, can be regarded in this sense. It was held for the first time in 1304, in commemoration of a glorious victory won in the previous year by the Mechelen population over Jan II, Duke of Brabant, and Jan Berthout, Lord of Mechelen, regarding the right of preference for the election of aldermen in the city council. In 1401, the first tableau vivant was introduced in this procession. By way of the procession’s culmination point, a fully-fledged play about the Assumption of Our Lady, attesting to widespread Marian devotion in the Low Countries, was performed in the city square from 1428 onwards. This essay studies the procession’s development, which was marked by increasing theatrical elements over time. The research covers the years between 1401 and 1471, the year in which the rhetoricians’ chamber De Peoene (the Peony Flower) was established. Thereafter, its members would assume responsibility for the procession and the performance of the play. The Ommegang attracted thousands of visitors to Mechelen and scores of religious dignitaries participated in it, making it the grandest event of the year. The Mechelen civic accounts, of which the oldest date back to 1311, serve as the primary source of information for describing how the procession developed over the greater part of the fifteenth century. |
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