Xacobeo 2010

The second Holy Year of the 21^st century is to be celebrated in 2010. The Jubilee Year of Compostela has been celebrated since the Middle Ages, whenever the feast day of the Apostle Saint James, 25^th July, fell on a Sunday. The Jubilee usually takes place every 5, 6, and 11 years. The last three years in this cycle were 1993, 1999 and 2004 and the following ones will be in 2010 and 2021. The religious celebrations begin one year before in the evening of the 31^st December, and end on the same day one year after.

The Galician Government, through the S.A. de Xestión do Plan Xacobeo (Management Society of Xacobean Plan), is organising a cultural and promotional project focusing on Jacobean culture and the Way of Saint James. The project is open to modern culture while also reflecting on the past, and seeks to revitalise and boost the routes and their natural, visual, cultural and economic value.

A decentralised action plan for culture and celebrations is to be brought into effect. It sets out reappraise the Ways of Saint James and their heritage, and to recover the routes and the spiritual value of pilgrimage. A balance is sought between short term programs, such as temporary exhibitions and the more stable permanent events such as museums, interpretation centres and publications. There will be historical and modern art exhibitions, and a complete program of sports, arts, cultural and social events throughout Galicia, including thinking forums and conference cycles, a performing arts program and small, medium and large scale concerts.

Foreign projects, mostly in European countries, focus on photographic exhibitions, which are planned in collaboration with Associations of the Way of Saint James, Spanish embassies, various offices of the Cervantes Institute and associations of Chambers of Commerce of Santiago in Spain and abroad. Work shall also be done in collaboration with other pilgrimage routes such as the Kumano in Japan.

The S.A. de Xestión do Plan Xacobeo sets out to achieve the best possible conservation of the layout of the Way of Saint James for Jubilee Year 2010 in Compostela and the restoration of value of its heritage by addressing itself to the physical infrastructures and the cultural and ecological surroundings. Major efforts have been made in maintenance, signposting, and layout improvement, and in amplifying the network of free public hostels to care for and accommodate pilgrims. To this end, the S.A. de Xestión do Plan Xacobeo will take decisive steps such as the “Plan Corrector dos Camiños de Santiago” (Deficiency Correction Plan of the Ways of Saint James) and the “Plan de Restauración e Posta en Valor dos Camiños de Santiago” (Restoration and Value Recovery Plan for the Ways of Saint James).

Another special feature of Xacobeo 2010 will be the integration and use of New Information and Communication Technologies that will serve the dual purpose of promoting and transmitting information and helping the pilgrim before, during and after doing the Way of Saint James.