When is Sacred Heart?
In Colombia this national holiday always falls on a Monday is celebrated ten weeks and a day after Easter Sunday.
The full title of the holiday is 'The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus'. In Spanish, it is known as 'El Sagrado Corazón de Jesús'.
In the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church it is a feast day 19 days after Pentecost and the second Friday after Corpus Christi. Like other holidays in Colombia that are based on a Catholic event, the holiday is celebrated on the Monday after the actual date.
Traditions of the Sacred Heart
The Feast of the Sacred Heart is devoted to the physical heart of Jesus as a symbol of his divine love for all humanity.
The devotion to the Sacred Heart developed in the middle ages out of worship to the scared wounds that Jesus received during his crucifixion. The devotion became more widespread in the seventeenth century when a French nun, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque said she learnt of the devotion from Jesus during several apparitions. The devotion to the Sacred Heart then spread across Spain due to the work of the Jesuits. This meant that the Spanish brought this tradition to their colonisation of Latin America.
In 1902, Colombia was officially consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and this remained in the constitution until 1991.
