October pilgrims

[Rosina Lila]

Hello you all,
The Santiago Archdiocese reports that 3,419 pilgrims received the Compostela
in October, 2001:  2,176 males and 1,243 females.
    87% of the pilgrims walked, 12.5% bicycled, . 5% rode horses and one went
by wheel chair.
    1,007 pilgrims were under 30 years old, 1,934 were between the ages of 30
and 60 and 474 were over 60 years old.
    46% of the pilgrims were from Spain; of the remainder,  422 came from
France, 327 from Germany, 174 from Brasil, 131 from the U.S.A., 101 from
Italy, 101 from the UK, 89 from Canada, 68 from Holland, 61 from Australia,
and the rest came from Mexico, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and the Nordic
countries.
    94% of the pilgrims declared a religious motivation for making the
pilgrimage, and the rest declared a cultural/spiritual purpose.
    The pilgrims started out in 73 different places; the majority, 605, came
from St. Jean Pied de Port, followed by Roncesvalles 506, Sarria 476, Leon
195, O Cebreiro 185, Le Puy 167, Ponferrada 160, Astorga 132, Pamplona 136,
inner French cities 116, Villafranca 98,  Burgos 89, and sundry others more
than 100 kms. from Santiago.
    93% of the pilgrims followed the French Way; the others followed the
Silver, North or English way.
    It is interesting to note that the number of October pilgrims was larger
than the yearly total of pilgrims for 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988.
    In 1993, a Jacobean Jubilee year, the pilgrims numbered 99,500; in 1998
they were 30,126; in 1999, another Jacobean Jubilee year, the pilgrims
totalled 154,613 and last year we were 55,004.
.   It should be remembered  that these numbers reflect only those pilgrims
who received the Compostela by virtue of having walked at least the last 100
kilometers or bicycled or ridden horses for at least the last 200 kilometers.
 They do not include those who could not complete the pilgrimage because of
injuries, lack of time or other impediments.
    Impressive as the recent increase in the number of pilgrims may be, the
totals still pale compared to the reported numbers of Middle Ages pilgrims.
-----   There are many Camino-pilgrim-related developments afoot in Spain
which may interest you all.  I'll tell you about them later.
---Thanks to Diane for the "migas" recipe; I shall certainly try it. The
"migas" I liked so much, and coudn't stop eating, were like biggish crumbs,
lightly fried, with raisins, served in wooden dishes and accompanied by every
edible that one could think of and delicious Aragonese wine.... almost as
good as the Galician Alberino.
Blessings and fondest regards,
Rosina