Summary
Le Dorat celebrated its fifty-first Ostensions (from the Latin ostendere: show, exhibit) from 28 March to 22 May 2016, during which the relics of the village's protectors Israel and Theobald are worshipped. These devotional celebrations which date back to the Middle-Ages take place every seven years in some twenty towns in Limousin according to a well-established ritual and particularly well respected by Le Dorat denizens.
During these festivities, the inhabitants are widely involved, as much to decorate the city centre with the colours of the event as to embody guards, Roman soldiers, musketeers and other emblematic characters of the procession. They are also tasked to stand around at the edge of town to perform an accurately observed ritual when welcoming delegations from nearby parishes who have come to honour the two saints and to deposit their own relics and statues in the reliquary.
The Limousin Ostensions are celebrations both religious and part of folk tradition which are deeply rooted in the local culture, which in their own way chronicle the small and great episodes of the region's history. They were inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013.
During these festivities, the inhabitants are widely involved, as much to decorate the city centre with the colours of the event as to embody guards, Roman soldiers, musketeers and other emblematic characters of the procession. They are also tasked to stand around at the edge of town to perform an accurately observed ritual when welcoming delegations from nearby parishes who have come to honour the two saints and to deposit their own relics and statues in the reliquary.
The Limousin Ostensions are celebrations both religious and part of folk tradition which are deeply rooted in the local culture, which in their own way chronicle the small and great episodes of the region's history. They were inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013.
