Philadelphia Stories

Right now, we're in Philadelphia, laying over for a few hours before the flight to Madrid.

Time for putting together a blog entry. This entry is about a couple of legends associated with the

Camino de Santiago. Since these walks to Santiago de Compostela have been religious pilgrimages for hundreds and hundreds of years, there are a lot of legends associated.

The symbol of The Way is the scallop shell. There are a lot of explanations of how this came to be, including the body of St. James arriving at Santiago in a boat covered with scallops. And, the scallop shell is the symbol of St. James. It's also suggested that the lines of the shell converging at a single point reflect the routes of the pilgrims converging at Santiago de Compostela. On a practical note, it's believed that the scallop shells carried by religious pilgrims identified them as such, keeping them from harassment by any number of bad guys. Finally, the shells served as a cup for food, water, and wine.

Today, the scallop shell is used on all the directional signs for the way – that and a yellow arrow. A lot of today's pilgrims, religious or not, carry a scallop shell in or on their pack.

And here's a piece of trivia... Coquille St. Jacques, the popular French way of preparing scallops, would translate as scallops ala St. James.

Marty and I are both carrying scallop shells. Mine is larger. I need more wine.

Another legend is regarding the Milky Way. Beginning in medieval times, it was thought that the Milky Way was formed by the dust raised by pilgrims on the Camino. The popular Spanish name for the Milky Way is “Camino de Santiago”, and the “Compostela” in the name of the town Santiago de Compostela translates as “field of stars.”