Corpus Christi

Arundel is dominated by its castle and by the cathedral – an enormous gothic-style building that was built in the 19th century but only became a cathedral in 1965. It’s a Roman Catholic cathedral; something that puzzled me as a child because I’d been taught that only cities had cathedrals. But I digress.

Every year the cathedral celebrates Corpus Christi – the day on which Christians commemorate the creation of ‘holy communion’ – with a flower festival. It’s an impressive sight, with coaches full of visitors dropping people off to see flower heads and petals arranged on the cathedral floor. Fortunately the police have put ‘no waiting’ signs outside the cathedral (although they’ve misspelt the festival as “Corpus Christie”, which gives the impression that Jesus was related to Agatha).

On the feast day itself, there’s a service held in the cathedral, following which the priest and congregation leave the church by walking over the flowers. At least, that’s what I’m told. I’ve never been inside for it.

That day is tomorrow, so the festival opened this morning at 9.30am. I was up there pretty promptly – mainly to beat the crowds, although I’ll confess I wanted to ‘get it done’ because there’s 'proper' work I need to do today. Here’s what it looked like…