Start Date

[Rosina Lila]

Hi Ann,
As I have been informed, the school year in northern Spain has not much
impact on the traffic on the Camino.  It would appear that the opposite might
occur since many schools take their students to walk some part of the Camino
or another during the School year.
The number of pilgrims during the summer has more to do with vacations and
the weather.  The last two years were particularly crowded because 1999 was a
Jacobean Holy Year, (when St. James' day falls on a Sunday and those who make
the pilgrimage on such year earn special spiritual recognition), and 2000 was
a Roman Holy Year with a Youth Gathering in Rome.  As the Papal Youth meeting
demonstrated in Paris a few years ago, (when much to everyone's surprise more
than a million young people descended on a totally unprepared Paris), the
Pope is impressively popular  among young people.  During my Santiago
pilgrimage last Summer I encountered clusters and clusters of young people
from many countries either on their way to the Youth meeting in Rome or
returning from it.  In Burgos there were about 200 young Americans who
delighted the locals with an impromptu concert in the park by the river,
singing such songs as "If I had a Hammer", and like folk classics; of
particular note were the accompanying young priests in their long black
habits with the turned out collar and baseball caps worn backwards!  I was
moved, touched and proud by and of the young Americans beyond my ability to
describe it.
I should think that the next few years will not be as crowded..... although
I, for one, felt an exultation of spiritual belonging in the number of
pilgrims.

Happy new millennium.

Rosina