Preparing for Albans Day a couple of days ago, June 2025 (iPhone)
Alban lived in the early third century in the Roman city of Verulamium, now St Albans. He met a Christian priest fleeing persecution and sheltered him. He exchanged clothes with the priest to enable him to escape, and the priest is now known as Amphibalus, meaning cloak. But Alban was caught by the Roman soldiers, declared his own Christian faith and was executed on the hillside overlooking Verulamium.
Alban is the first-recorded Christian martyr and he is remembered every year in St Albans in Hertfordshire.
The Alban Day parade and other celebrations will take place in St Albans today, 21 June 2025. Giant 12-foot puppets of Alban, Roman soldiers, popping eyeballs and peregrine falcons will march down the street ending at the cathedral. There will also be art, music, dancing, food and more around town throughout the day, plus services in the Cathedral where his shrine stands.
Now over to all of you. Do come and join us in our Saturday six-word musings.
I’ll admit that many of us openly break the numeric rule and share far more words (all excellent of course!) so the key rule is to have a title of six words – and then create around that the post that you desire! Perhaps in bunches of 6 words if you’re feeling inspired.
To join the challenge, please put a link in your post to the URL of this post. Then come back here and leave us a comment. If you have any problems with linking, just put your own URL into the comment. And do feel free to socialise digitally with the hashtags #SixWordSaturday and #6WS. You’ll find me on Instagram @travel_travel_with_intent and @dsmythphoto
Copyright Debbie Smyth, 21 June 2025
Posted as part of Six Word Saturday
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Travel with Intent 
Quite an interesting bit of information regarding Alban and the Alban Day Parade that I didn’t know.
Pradeep / Time and Tide
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Well, those are certainly amazing! I’ve never seen anything remotely like them.
https://lisasgardenadventureinoregon.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-first-salad-bush-cucumber-harvested.html
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Well captured procession. I think of religious processions as occurring in Latin America more often. Cool to see. I’ve a current rain obsession: https://fakeflamenco.com/2025/06/21/cant-stop-the-june-rain-drops/
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Interesting!
Here’s mine for today: Quite A Nice Mix Of Colors | Out of My Write Mind
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https://mymindmappings.com/2025/06/21/fowc-with-fandango-precision/
I have never been to St. Albans but I remember my mum telling me she had cousins that lived there.
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He’s literally and figuratively bigger than life. 😉
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This is positively Catalan. Do these English gigantes get any other outings beyond today? And how old is this tradition, do you know?
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Yes, it definitely feels like the Catalan parades. The pilgrimage element has been taking place for 1600-1700 years, but I’m sure the giant element is much more recent. How recent I don’t know.
The giants stand in the cathedral for about 6 weeks before the big day, but then they take their long annual rest!
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Fascinating stuff. If you ever find the Oldest Inhabitant, be sure to have a chat and find out more!
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Sounds like a colourful event, and it’s great that he’s remembered and honoured all these centuries later.
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Enjoy the parade 😀. My entry here:
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A good story and looks like you’ll be having a fun weekend Debbie
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Not a fun story (ending in an execution) but it seems like a fun event. Now in our area we don’t have matyr stories but we do have a few Roman artifacts from around the same time. There is this bridge. It’s supposed to have had a purpose, i.e. one of the small rivers must have posed a problem crossing for the Romans. https://picturesimperfectblog.com/2025/06/21/roman-bridge-yet-no-more-river/
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Giant figures, but those hands still seem out of proportion. 🙂
Mine come with a warning if you dislike spiders, although these are very small…
https://mariawijk.wordpress.com/2025/06/21/itsy-bitsy-cross-spiders-huddling-together/
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Oh, wow! Giant figures like those they have In Spain and Portugal! Here’s mine for today: https://suejudd.com/2025/06/21/a-game-of-dominoes-in-cuba/
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A great event, Giant Soldiers 🙂 Here is my link… https://davidoakes-images.com/2025/06/21/6ws-6-word-saturday-challenge-53/
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these seem to be early birds – not much crowd yet and you could take unobstructed images.
https://lessywannagohome.blogspot.com/2025/06/standing-on-ledge-looking-up.html
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Yes, thsi was a practice a couple of days ago. The parade starts in about an hour
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