Case file · Folklore / legend
Santa Compaña
The Galician procession of the dead walking at night with candles, led by a living person carrying a cross, is described in Cuveiro Piñol's Galician dictionary of 1876.
1876 CE · 42.60, -7.80 · status: legend
The account
Meeting the Compaña meant death within the year unless one drew a circle on the ground or held a cross. It is the Iberian form of the European 'host of the dead' and is still told across Galicia and Asturias (as the Güestia).