Altering a Breton Tradition

This story was widely reported, and caused concern among Catholics in particular. The "Tro Breizh" (or Tour of Brittany) is a Catholic pilgrimage that links the towns of the seven founding saints of Brittany. According to an old legend, those who do not complete the tour in their lifetime will be condemned to complete it in the Afterlife, by walking the length of their coffin, once every seven years. The ceremony had been absent for a long time when it was revived in 1994 by the Chemins du Tro Breizh Association. The seven cities that make up the tour are Quimper, Saint-Pol-de-Leon, Tréguier, Saint-Brieuc, Saint-Malo, Dol de Bretagne, Vannes.

The following information is from the local paper Ouest-France:

This year, the pilgrimage made an additional stop in Nantes, the city of the Dukes of Brittany, and it was this exceptional stop that triggered the controversy. The pilgrims were to leave the Château of the Dukes and move on to the Cathedral of Saint-Pierre. Historically, the procession includes banners, priests in their cassocks, Breton musical instruments, and traditional costumes.

On Monday, the municipality who administers the château, made known that it would ban religious signs within the boundaries of the château. Pierre-François Parodi, assistant director in charge of Nantes Culture and Heritage, invoking article 10 of the internal regulations, declared he wanted to respect the neutrality of the site. The organizers of Tro Breizh bitterly regretted his decision since the pilgrimage, which had left from Sainte-Anne-d'Auray on Sunday (August 1), was to end amidst great pomp in the courtyard of the château. (...) On Saturday (August 7), a thousand pilgrims walked the path that leads to the citadel of Nantes. The guides wore their yellow chasubles, but the religious cassocks, banners and holy water sprinklers were left in the closets. Among the pilgrims, no one wanted to talk about the "little administrative glitch". Hundreds of flags of Brittany (called the Gwenn-ha-Du) were flying while musicians played their hearts out and tourists and pilgrims applauded.

Note: The musical instruments featured in the procession were the bombard and the biniou. See note at end for more.

"They told us to organize this as if it were a hike, and that is what we did," explained Jean-Jacques Martin, one of the organizers of Tro Breizh, as he was going up the narrow street leading to the cathedral. But once there, the decor changed completely. Seminarians in white robes came to welcome the pilgrims. The faithful, in silence, joined in with the crowd. Others, for whom the sporting aspects were more significant than the spiritual origins of the event, left before the religious ceremony began.

So, (if I understand this correctly) the pilgrims marched from Saint-Anne-d'Auray in full array. But when they arrived in Nantes, at the Château of the Dukes of Brittany, they removed their religious habit (except for the chasubles - why were they allowed to keep the chasuble?) and put away all religious banners, water sprinklers, etc... They then proceeded to the cathedral, which is not far away, where they were allowed to return to their religious clothing and symbols.

I find the mayor's decision beyond ridicule. According to Novopress, the decision to ban the religious habit shocked Philippe Abjean, one of the organizers:

"This is insane. It's like returning to the secular obscurantism at the beginning of the 20th century. It's completely incomprehensible. We're in another era, you know. (...) This ban would be laughable if one did not sense an underlying desire to eradicate identities. The Tro Breizh is a witness, in its way, to the heritage and the identity of Brittany. And the last straw is that Nantes, historic capital of Brittany, does not respect Breton culture or traditions. It's paradoxical."

Novopress notes the double standard of the Nantes municipality:

Very punctilious when it comes to respecting laïcité within the boundaries of the Château, the municipality headed by Socialist Mayor Jean-Marc Ayrault is much less so when it comes to promoting the construction of mosques and minarets in the four corners of the city. A "two speed" laïcité, so to speak.

The Tro Breizh pilgrimage is very similar to a "Pardon".

Wikipedia defines a Pardon:

A Pardon is a typically Breton form of pilgrimage and one of the most traditional demonstrations of popular Catholicism in Brittany. Of very ancient origin, probably dating back to the conversion of the country by the Celtic monks, it is comparable to the parades associated with Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland or New York.

A Pardon is a penitential ceremony. A Pardon occurs on the feast of the patron saint of a church or chapel, at which an indulgence is granted. Hence use of the word "Pardon". Pardons only occur in the traditionally Breton language speaking Western part of Brittany. They do not extend farther east than Guingamp.

The painting below by Charles Cottet is of the women of Plougastel, participating in the Pardon of Sainte-Anne-La-Palud.


The two principal musical instruments used in these colorful Breton processions are the bombard and the biniou, a type of bagpipe:

The bombard is a member of the oboe family. Describing it as an oboe, however, can be misleading since it has a broader and very powerful sound, somewhat resembling a trumpet. It is played as oboes are played, with the double reed placed between the lips; the second octave is achieved with increased lip and air pressure or through the use of an octave key. Bombards in their most traditional setting are accompanied by a bagpipe called a biniou kozh ("ancient bagpipe"), which plays an octave above the bombard. The two players are referred to as Sonerion (in Breton) or sonneurs de couple (in French). A bombard player is known as a talabarder. The bombard calls, and the biniou responds. The bombard requires so much lip pressure and breath support that a talabarder can rarely play a sustained melody line. The biniou plays the melody continuously, while the bombard takes breaks, establishing the call-and-response pattern. Prior to World War I, a given pair of Soners would typically cover all of the weddings, funerals, and other social occasions within a given territory, which would be jealously guarded from other performers. This duet of bombard and pipes, also occasionally accompanied by a drummer in past centuries, has been practiced for at least 500 years in Brittany in an unbroken tradition and must be considered the heart and soul of this instrument's place in Breton culture.

Source: Wikipedia

Below a talabarder and a piper.


Below, another great painting of the Pardon in Kergoat by the appropriately named artist Jules Breton: