Bloody Friday 2027 - College Closed

Good Friday (university closed), no classes
This holiday applies only in Weingarten. Stores in Ravensburg are open.

The History of the “Blutritt”

The custom likely originated in Weingarten before the 16th century: on the Friday of the Week of Prayer, that is, on the Friday after the Feast of the Ascension, to hold a procession through the fields on horseback, carrying the Holy Blood relic instead of the customary cross fragment. This form of blessing the land and its people is still practiced on what is known as “Blutfreitag.” Until the 17th century, the Blutritt was associated with a circumambulation of the borders of the Weingarten area. During this procession, the fathers walked with their sons who had come of age and slapped them at notable points along the route. The Blutritt was first mentioned in writing in 1529 and was already described at that time as a custom “from time immemorial.”
This Upper Swabian festival, with its more than 2,500 riders and just as many musicians, has long been considered the largest and probably also the oldest equestrian procession in Europe, attracting several thousand pilgrims and visitors each year and traditionally beginning on the evening of Ascension Day with a festive sermon in the basilica and the grand candlelight procession to the Kreuzberg.