Current Observances
Each year some 30,000 people from all over the world make pilgrimages to the Santuario de Chimayó during Holy Week, especially on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, some seeking blessings and some in fulfillment of a vow. Walking is traditional; some pilgrims walk from as far away as Albuquerque, about 90 miles (150 km).
Many visitors to the church take a small amount of the "holy dirt", often in hopes of a miraculous cure for themselves or someone who could not make the trip. Formerly, at least, they often ate the dirt. (Likewise pilgrims to the original shrine of Esquipulas eat the supposedly curative clay found there.) Now seekers of cures more commonly rub themselves with the dirt or simply keep it. The Church replaces the dirt in the pocito from the nearby hillsides, sometimes more than once a day, for a total of about 25 or 30 tons a year.
The Church takes no position on whether miracles have occurred at the Santuario.
The feast of Our Lord of Esquipulas is celebrated on January 15 or on the Sunday nearest that date.
The feast of St. James the Great (Santiago) is celebrated on the fourth weekend of July.
Read more about this topic: El Santuario De Chimayo
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