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I wondered about that also. Doubt they could stop it, they’ll be lucky to get people to stop leaving them everywhere else.
Oh wow. I did exactly that. I left the small stone I'd brought from my garden in the snow at the base of el Cruz, and picked up a pebble from the roadside and brought it home. It has its little shelf in the garden!
I have read that periodically the Spanish government "cleans-up" the shrine at Cruz de Ferro. They remove rocks and the trinkets folks have left behind. I have no idea how often this happens. In the article on this they are said they store what is removed somewhere, but I am not sure where. I also read that they had to move the mound of rocks to put in the paved road that now goes to the location (so buses can get there). Last year there were plans to turn it into some 'Disney like park' but it was prevented because it is a world heritage site and the plans did not comply with the requirements of a world heritage site. I have no first hand knowledge of this information and would be grateful to have the information confirmed or denied by someone who does have the inside scoop.
I like this idea. The stones I've brought from home are tiny, weighing "nothing" in my backpack until placed with a prayer.
I like this. But if we could take a stone from the Cruz then the locals wouldn't have to worry about what to do with a mountain of loose rock. I imagine at some point some of it gets hauled away to lessen risk of those who climb it, and that costs money. we could make it a tradition that we leave our burden and help others carry theirs. But...that is up to Spain to decide what to do if the issue of rocks becomes too great a burden on the locals. I live next to the Mission Trail (el camino real) in California and have been pushing local leaders to develop it more, but then I think of people camping behind my house, pooping on my hiking trails...and I rethink my position.
when I walked the Primitivo I saw signs in El Acebo (on the bar/shop) sort of "advertising" placing a rock at a further location down the road (I think it was after the restaurant Catro Ventos)...when I got there there were signs posted in Spanish and German urging a rock be added to this pile. I've wondered if they kept this up. I'm guessing it was done to provide the Primitivo with it's own "tourist draw" but I think after a while they might come to regret that decision. Once I knew where it was, I back tracked the path a few yards until I found a heart shaped rock the size of a nickel and added it, thinking along your lines that at least it only moved about five feet.
I did leave my late mother's "worry stone" at the base of Cruz de Farro hoping a needy pilgrim could use it.
Here’s a picture @Kathar1na posted a few years ago on the subject of clean ups at the Cruz…I think it looks so much better without the attached detritus
Imagine how quickly your "weighing nothing" stones can pile up over the years. Nonetheless, I think your idea of a stone "exchange" does have merits -- if the stone is picked out of the same pile.
if it's any consolation, it's not the physical things that make a place sacred IMO, and also IMO places that are sacred should be respected and protected, so speaking of the small ermitas, markers, etc along the way this means left pristine. My heart broke seeing detritus piled up on what would be the altar in an emita on the CF. I can understand why it's so difficult to get into small churches along the camino--or in the words of many mothers, this is why we can't have nice things. If I lived on the camino I'd have the local church or town hall give out a very special stamp, only to pilgrims who bring in a bag full of detritus collected along the path to be thrown away. And a special indulgence at the cathedral to those who have at least five such stamps (pleanary if one such stamp every day of walking). this is why I'm not Pope (although I did write to him in 2020 to urge he make a Holy Year of Pilgrimage once vaccines are available, to help all the areas struggling with loss of business)
I bring a rock or sometimes 2 or 3 every camino I walk. In 2017 I walked with a very close friend who was grieving the loss of his daughter. I told him about the tradition and what the rock could represent. For me the rock can represent anything one chooses. I told him to look for a rock that just felt right. Something small that he could carry in his pocket and basically always have with him. This was about 2 months before we left. I told him to find the rock as soon as he could and keep it with him the moment he found it. Hold it when he walks, feel it. He asked me if there was a place to leave it. I said leave it wherever and whenever you feel it. One day we were walking in a meadow. He called to me and said he would catch up. I said I would wait at the first open cafe for him. I knew immediately what he was going to do.
I read this article about how rituals without tradition dirty the cathedral and the Camino, in today’s La Voz de Galicia as I departed Santiago de Compostela. I am deeply pained.
La peor huella de los peregrinos
Los rituales sin tradición ensucian la Catedral y el Camino de Santiagowww.lavozdegalicia.es
I also. Social media may have something to do with propagating this. Couldn't it be used to discourage it? A clever Tiktok of someome removing the detritus, and why, perhaps.
Good idea! Hey, @Rebekah Scott , how about an honorary Ditch Pigs stamp?
A few years ago, I arrived at the Cruz early morning—no one was there except me and the man driving the bulldozer, collecting the stones and dumping them into a bin to be hauled away. It was a very strange experience.
It certainly would have ruined any spiritual or reflective moment for me. No wonder it felt strange.
I agree with you, I am even somewhat torn as to take pictures along the "Way" As it compartmentalizes my experience as a whole. Being focused on the act it self , of taking of that photo, rather than just taking the visual into my memory. Which leads me to my reason FOR taking the photos, So I can remember my experience as time marches on and my memory fades........... but to leave garbage as a momento of my experience is so wrong.....I read this article about how rituals without tradition dirty the cathedral and the Camino, in today’s La Voz de Galicia as I departed Santiago de Compostela. I am deeply pained.
La peor huella de los peregrinos
Los rituales sin tradición ensucian la Catedral y el Camino de Santiagowww.lavozdegalicia.es
I do the same wherever I see it. It is ignorance and/or stupidity/ego that makes this happening. No respect for Spain and the Camino IMHO.
I hsd heard much the same - the government cleans up the 'stuff' (photographs, trinkets, toys, ribbons, shoes and clothing, etc.) left behind by pilgrims and others at Cruz de Ferro regularly and removed surplus stones and rocks once or twice a year.
Another good idea!
I talked to the government workers who were there cleaning up the Cruz de Ferro pile when I came by. The rocks people bring are okay, but the rest - ribbons, pictures, clothing, shoes, candles, all the stuff nailed to the pole, etc. - is carted away and destroyed. The workers expressed real frustration about this "tradition." I believe they are there at least a couple of times a month to shovel out all the garbage. That's what they called it. I wish there were recommendations given at SJPP and maybe a few other places along the Camino to pilgrims that the best course is to leave NOTHING along the trail but footsteps.
Were they workers like the ones in the photo? They are from the Protección Civil de Astorga team and the photo is from 2019. Saw it on Facebook. They are only one of several groups and organisations who help to help to clean the area around the Cruz de Ferro. Again and again.
If this picture is from October 2021 how wonderful. I have never seen it that clean!
I think it needs to be written in each credential, and stressed each time someone hands a credential to a walker (from church, pilgrim office, albergue, etc). It is garbage. The comments on the article originally posted here show what our very kind Spanish hosts think of this ridiculous monument to undeserved ego.
The results will not be as good if you insult them, however much they may deserve it. Most of them don't deserve to be called pigs. they're just doing it because so many others did, without considering the results. Just like the things you see by the dozens on Facebook, begging you to help change it to hundreds.
I think you've misunderstood the term "Ditch Pig" - a Ditch Pig cleans up the mess others leave behind.
Here is the first thread I found that announces the annual clean-up that is organized by forum member Rebekah Scott. I assume that the name "Ditch Pigs" was their own joking name for the team. Search for "ditch pigs" on the forum and you will find more references.
I gather that some staff in restaurant and hospitality venues not involved in the cooking are sometimes referred to (usually affectionately) as Dish Pigs (see, for instance, https://www.redlantern.com.au/new-blog/dish-pig). A common task of a dish Pig is the collection and washing of dirty plates from the tables.
That's pretty funny. The cocktail umbrellas, not the dog turds.
I happened to watch episode 24, Foncebadón-Ponferrada, part of a TV series by a Spanish TV station, and there is an interview with the team of Protección Civil who regularly clean the Cruz de Ferro site. Perhaps someone with a better knowledge of Spanish can summarise it in English or provide an English translation of what is said? They are volunteers.
www.cope.es
I started watching the video in this link and stopped watching when I came to the point where the speaker says that they left a copy of the USB data stick with prayers on the Cruz de Ferro ...
I like this. I thought about *taking* a stone from Cruz de Ferro, because somebody else's burdens might be a nice change.
Maybe you can send/store your prayers to the cloud now.
Not mine. I'd be gleefully helping.
Where I'm from, someone started a story about rocks bringing terrible luck if pocketed. It's not true but works like a charm.
My companion asked me not to do this when people could see me. Not always easy to do on a busy section of the Camino Francés. So occasionally I would lean on the mojon as if I needed a rest and slowly move my arm horizontally and, oops, the stones had fallen off the way marker.
I bought a can of spray paint at a hardware store along the Way. Same color as the mojones. Cleaned up some grafitti with that. Not a perfect fix, but it made me feel better.
Unless you are buying environmentally friendly spray paint, your very noble gesture may contribute inadvertently to the air pollution.
As does everything it seems. The synthetics in our backpacks, shoes, clothing etc are all manufactured using fossil fuels. Enormous petro-chemical plants belching gases into the sky.
Everybody thinks that what they leave on this mountain pass called Cruz de Ferro is special, whether it is a particularly shaped pebble from far away, a photo of a loved one, a card with the painting of a saint on it, a written wish on paper in a plastic envelope, a larger than normal rock with an engraving on it to mark the event, a USB stick, a Nepalese prayer flag, a small national flag, a sticker, a personal item of clothing. Everybody.
Well... I'd start by taking out the road tarmac....Everybody thinks that what they leave on this mountain pass called Cruz de Ferro is special, whether it is a particularly shaped pebble from far away, a photo of a loved one, a card with the painting of a saint on it, a written wish on paper in a plastic envelope, a larger than normal rock with an engraving on it to mark the event, a USB stick, a Nepalese prayer flag, a small national flag, a sticker, a personal item of clothing. Everybody.
Why does anything have to be left there at all? Because they had seen it in movies, had read about it in blogs and guidebooks, had seen photos, had been told about it.
Imagine a world where nobody is told. Imagine a world where crosses on mountain tops are left alone. Just respected as such and a place where you can pray if you want to. The pass would stay pristine.
Oh, and videotaping and photo taking ought to be forbidden within a range of 500 m.
Might not help as much as you think. America is not the only place where I've seen evidence that some people think two steps to a trashcan is too far to walk.
Very true.
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