http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QFd_55El1I

Imagine what it would be like if they had...chant.

So much like English change ringing - I'd love a chance of being part of that crew! And I would really appreciate a copy of the hymn being sung also.

I admit that it's really fascinating. But, is this a singular phenomenon or part of some older tradition? It seems like a really fun but mostly distracting way to incense the altar/church/people/anything. What am I missing?

goes 360 : You mean like figure 8s and circles and halves? In my episcopalian days I did each just one time, outdoors where they were not so dangerous, and they were great fun! But where to find video I would not know.

Dan F.: Those questions have been in my mind too ever since I first heard of this giant thurible. I returned to them tonight and skimmed the Wikipedia articles on city and cathedral, a Guardian article, and the cathedral's own website, and found practically nothing. I learned that the censer used today was made in 1851. The Guardian says the practice goes back 700 years and nobody knows the reason for it. Nowhere can I find mention of when and how the thing is done. I could not even find mention of the censor on the cathedral's site, a site that is so loaded down with sending images that it is intolerably slow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwswNZPTU3Q is the first video and it is not a 360.

While the huge, swinging thurifer may seem over done, the church is full. Is there a difference between something like this which may be part of the reason the church was full and having an excellent choir that people are attracted to hear?

Go to: http://www.santiago-compostela.net/

This ancient Shrine to St. James is at the culmination of a pilgrimage through the north of Spain. There are a number of historic routes of this pilgrimage. I'm sure many of those people have finished one of the pilgrimages, and, no, they probably won't return for next Sunday's Mass. But they might make the pilgrimage again - maybe after they've made other pilgrimages, like to Our Lady of Walsingham Shrine in England which is originally from about the same time period.

Getting back to the first query - i.e. Imagine what it would be like if they had .... chant? What did they have when this was first introduced? Maybe nothing - it just happened with no music. Now they elected to sing whatever it is now. What the heck would/could you sing? This is a rather unique local custom. I can't think of anything which would be suitable given the spectacle.

If you had traveled hundreds of miles on foot on a rocky mountain road, either out of devotion or as an assigned penance, you would be glad to see Big Things at the pilgrimage site. Pretty much all the big pilgrimage churches featured elaborate Masses and devotional ceremonies, special hymns of the place, multiple pilgrimage areas within the town, and so forth. Many of the pilgrimage churches included elaborate clockworks and other showy cool things. If they didn't have them, people brought back stuff from the far corners of the earth and gave them to them; or they commissioned them for the church.

The analogy to tourism is actually pretty apt. Pilgrimages were medieval destination tourism, among other things.

But a holy place, being close to God, was most fittingly "decorated" with things of wonder. Also, a pilgrimage is always a special high holy occasion; so it was fitting to have super freaky stuff, like a giant thurible of prayer. Having it be somewhat scientific, like a giant swinging thurible, was an apt illustration of God's reasonable Creation, able to be understood. There's even the medieval tendency to mix play and solemnity in church, and to do dramatic things that make you wonder if it will turn out Badly. It's like a medieval holiness homerun.

I'm not saying that everybody has to have a giant swinging thurible, but it would certainly make me give thanks to God if I saw one!

I'm probably being much too prosaic, but wouldn't at least part of the historic reason for a giant swinging thurible likely be the odor of the gathered pilgrims?

Very nice singing with organ.:)

Hopefully, nobody got in the way of the thurible when it was swung all the way from one side to the other.

If you look at about 2:33 minutes you'll see one of the priests looking at it like a kid looks at a balloon or something saying, "Look Mommy!"

I like it. They will probably be responsible for incensing heaven. As for me I hope to run a wing shop perched on the edge of a huge cloud. Not buffalo wings, but deadalus wings for your flying enjoyment.

Everybody knows that the best in the world is Benny Dawkins in "The Diva Wore Diamonds." He won the International Thurifer Invitational in Santiago, Spain. He stunned the judges with his signature move, St. Moulagh's Breastplate, which left a vaporous Celtic cross hanging in the air. ;-)

Has anyone even established that the botafumeiro is used at mass? Perhaps it is used at a special ceremony for the reception of pilgrims? Such a service would probably be a non-liturgical devotion in which the vernacular might be used extensively or exclusively; cf. the rosary.

Maureen, I think you are right on.

I don't know Spanish, but I think the Archdiocese of Compostela website says the following:

• The Botafumeiro is used on the 25 Solemnities of the year, and occasionally for pilgrimages
  
• The Hymn to St. James the Apostle was composed during the holy year 1920. The lyrics were written by a local doctor, Barcia Caballero, and the music was composed by M. Soler, the maestro of the Cathedral Chapel.
  

BTW, the Holy Father is scheduled to visit Compostela this November. 2010 is considered a "Holy Year" at Compostela, because the Feast of St. James (July 25) falls on a Sunday.