THE WAY OF SAINT JAMES & THE GAME OF THE GOOSE

The Catalan-Aragonese Kings' mausoleum, Poblet

Today, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice (Chapter 28). 

After doing these activities, The Grandma has visited the monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet where Jaume I The Conqueror is buried.

She has wanted to remember this king in the day of his festivity and investigate about the real connections between the Way of Saint James, the Game of the Goose and Jaume I The Conqueror. 

Welcome to one of the most amazing secrets in our history...

More information: Questions 2 - I , II & III

The Pilgrimage of Compostela, known in English as the Way of Saint James among other names, is a network of pilgrims' ways serving pilgrimage to the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, where tradition has it that the remains of the saint are buried. Many follow its routes as a form of spiritual path or retreat for their spiritual growth.

The French Way and the Routes of Northern Spain are the courses which are listed in the World Heritage List by UNESCO.

Saint James the Apostle

The Way of Saint James was one of the most important Christian pilgrimages during the Middle Ages, together with those to Rome and Jerusalem, and a pilgrimage route on which a plenary indulgence could be earned; other major pilgrimage routes include the Via Francigena to Rome and the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Legend holds that Saint James's remains were carried by boat from Jerusalem to northern Iberian Peninsula, where he was buried in what is now the city of Santiago de Compostela. The name Santiago is the local Galician evolution of Vulgar Latin Sancti Iacobi, Sant Iago in Asturian and Saint James in English.

The Way can take one of dozens of pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. Traditionally, as with most pilgrimages, the Way of Saint James began at one's home and ended at the pilgrimage site. However, a few of the routes are considered main ones. During the Middle Ages, the route was highly travelled. However, the Black Death, the Protestant Reformation, and political unrest in 16th century Europe led to its decline. 

More information: Camino de Santiago

By the 1980s, only a few hundred pilgrims per year registered in the pilgrim's office in Santiago. In October 1987, the route was declared the first European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe; it was also named one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. Since the 1980s the route has attracted a growing number of modern-day international pilgrims.

Whenever St. James's Day, 25 July, falls on a Sunday, the cathedral declares a Holy or Jubilee Year.

Zogo del'Oca de Miran

The Game of the Goose is a board game where two or more players move pieces around a track by rolling a die. The aim of the game is to reach square number sixty-three before any of the other players, avoid obstacles such as the Inn, the Bridge and Death.

The game is thought to have originated in the 16th century, and is considered the prototype of many of the commercial European racing board games of later centuries. The game is mostly played in Europe and seen as family entertainment. Commercial versions of the game appeared in the 1880s and 1890s, and feature typical old European characteristics such as an old well and children in clothes from the period.

The game's origins are uncertain. Some connect the game with the Phaistos Disc because of its spiral shape.

The board consists of a track with consecutively numbered spaces, usually 63, and is often arranged in a spiral with the starting point at the outside. Each player's piece is moved according to throws of one or two dice. Scattered throughout the board are a number of spaces on which a goose is depicted; landing on a goose allows the player to move again by the same distance. 

More information: Master of Games

Additional shortcuts, such as spaces marked with a bridge, move the player to some other specified position. There are also a few penalty spaces which force the player to move backwards or lose one or more turns, the most recognizable being the one marked with a skull and symbolizing death; landing on this space results in the player being sent back to start.

Why are the Way of Saint James and the Game of the Goose related?

The popular board game would be really a crypto map and its creation could be related to the Knights Templar.

The Grandma in the Poblet Route

It is very likely that most of us have spent rainy afternoons playing the game of the goose, childlike at first glance, but it could save a studied symbolism hidden from those who do not look with suitable eyes. The origin of this popular game is uncertain: some attribute it to disk of Festo, one of the most fascinating archaeological mysteries unsolved; others, in medieval Florence of the Medicis and finally, is attributed to the creation of the Templars in the twelfth century, inspired by the Way of Saint James.

Knights Templar protected pilgrims on their journey to Rome, Jerusalem and Santiago de Compostela, considered holy places for Christianity, being the route to Santiago where the Templars got more power and influence. The current French Way was not a very safe place in the Middle Ages, especially as some territories crossed areas outside the Christian control. For this reason, the Templars have designed a crypto map where the 63 squares of the board correspond to certain points of the Way of Saint James.

More information: Ancient Origins

Each of the symbols of the boxes would refer to emblems and signs that the Master Builders have placed in relevant parts of the road, including mentions that the first bridge board could correspond with the town of Puente la Reina in Navarra. 

The cryptographic encryption board? Starting in Roncesvalles and end in Finisterre, would be created to give a code that any Templar could understand regardless of their mother tongue and could memorize without having to carry the board in tow.

Jaume I, El Conqueridor

Another theory studies this crypto map like an exile escape way by the Gypsies and the Occitans, communities that took different paths: the first ones to the west and south of the Iberian Peninsula and the second ones to te British Islands.

This theory doesn't talk about the apostle Saint James the Great but Jaume I El Conqueridor (The Conqueror), the king of the Catalan-Aragonese crown who helped Cathars and Gypsies to escape from the Pope of Avinhon.

Beyond these possible theories of origin of the game, many interpretations verging speculation and although the correspondence between squares and landmarks of the Way of Saint James is attributed, these are unclear.

Only searching and investigation could arrive in a closer future to offer us more information about this route and this game but meanwhile we can imagine and believe whatever we want.

Open your mind and don't believe in official channels because words are the best allies to discover the past. We only have to find them and decodified them.

More information: Monestir de Poblet

He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, 

and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. 

Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat 

along with the hired men and followed him.

Mark 1:19-20