The Fiesta de las Cruces / Cruz de Mayo / Dia de la Cruz / Cruces de Mayo – the name varies from area to area – is a holiday celebrated on May 3rd in many parts of Spain, particularly the south, and Latin America.
Religiously, the origin of the festival relates to the search by the Byzantine Empress Saint Helena for the cross on which Jesus died.
Legend has it that Emperor Constantine I was involved in a conflict with barbarians on the banks of the river Danube and was facing a huge army, which made victory seemingly impossible.
It is said that one night, Constantine saw a vision of a cross in the sky with the words ‘In hoc signo vincis’ (With this sign, you shall be victorious). The Romans, the same as many other nations before and after, were very conscious of, and put great faith in omens and other signs and, quite naturally, the emperor had a cross made and put at the front of his army.
Needless to say, Constantine was victorious. He was subsequently baptized as a Christian and gave orders to construct Christian churches. He also sent his mother, Saint Helena, to Jerusalem in search of the True Cross, the cross on which Jesus died.
Arriving in Jerusalem, Helena summoned the wisest priests to help her to find the cross and on Calvary Hill, traditionally considered the site of Jesus’s crucifixion, she found three bloodstained logs. To ascertain which was the True Cross, she placed the logs one by one over sick people, even the dead. At the touch of the True Cross they were healed or revived.
Santa Helena died praying for all believers in Christ to celebrate the commemoration of the day the Cross was found.
