The organisation of the Procession of the Mysteries, already a few months prior to the festivity of Corpus Christi, involves the voluntaries of the Mysteries and Traditions Association. It is necessary, in fact, to overhaul the “machines”, fix the costumes of the figurants, the uniforms of the bearers but, above all, recruit the figurants among the children and the adults that wish to participate in the most heartfelt and important tradition of Campobasso. The coordinator of the Mysteries and Traditions Association chooses the figurants mainly in relation to their physical and physiognomic characteristics: a fundamental requisite for the children is the possibility to sit comfortably in the harnesses, whilst for the adults is the capability of interpreting their assigned role to their best. The formation of the team – bearers and their management during the Procession, is, instead, at the discretion of every single team leader, according to the criteria of each one of them. On Corpus Domini morning, at 08.00 a.m., in the courtyard of the Museum that hosts the Mysteries in permanent exhibition, the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Campobasso-Bojano celebrates the Holy Mass at the presence of the voluntaries of the Association, the figurants with their parents, the bearers, and the Municipal, Provincial and Regional institutional authorities. At the end of the ceremony, the figurants animate the iron structures of the Mysteries thanks to the precious work of the dressers (two for each Mystery) that are entrusted in assuring the figurants to the harnesses and taking care of the costumes and the scenographical aspects. At 10.00 a.m. the Mysteries leave the Museum in order to start the Procession that will lead them through the main streets of the city until they get to piazza Vittorio Emanuele II where, at around 13.00 p.m., from the balcony of the Municipality, they will receive the Archbishop’s blessing before returning to the Museum. The most evocative tract of the entire route is surely the passage along the streets of Borgo Antico where the Mysteries fill the narrow lanes almost touching the houses that become an appropriate frame to the parade.
