The Xacobeo 2027 will have an important novelty in one of its most symbolic events. The opening of the Holy Door of the Cathedral of Santiago will be celebrated on December 31, 2026 at noon, several hours earlier than usual in previous jubilees.
The opening of the Holy Door will once again mark the symbolic beginning of a new Compostela Holy Year, but this time it will do so with a different schedule.
The archbishop of Santiago, Francisco Prieto, explained that the event will take place on December 31, 2026 at noon, instead of being celebrated in the afternoon as was usual in previous Holy Years.
The change seeks to facilitate the participation of pilgrims, faithful and visitors in a day especially conditioned by the New Year's Eve celebrations.
An opening several hours earlier
The modification of the schedule means bringing forward one of the most anticipated moments of the entire Xacobeo .
The ceremony will take place around the Holy Door, located in Praza da Quintana, where the archbishop will perform the traditional opening gesture that announces the beginning of the Holy Year.
The new schedule aims to prevent the event from coinciding with the most complicated hours of December 31 and allow for broader and more orderly participation.
For many pilgrims who travel to Santiago specifically to attend the opening, the change can be especially important when organizing trips, accommodations and transportation.
Francisco Prieto will open the Holy Door for the first time
Xacobeo 2027 will also have a special meaning for Francisco Prieto.
It will be the first time that, as archbishop of Santiago, he presides over the opening of the Holy Door.
The event maintains an enormous symbolic load within the Jacobean tradition and marks the formal beginning of a particularly important period for the Cathedral of Santiago and for the entire pilgrim world.
The Holy Year will be celebrated during 2027 because the feast of the Apostle Santiago, July 25, will fall on a Sunday.
The sound of the jubilee horn returns
The change in schedule will not be the only novelty.
The ceremony will also recover the sound of yobel or jubilee horn, an element linked to the biblical tradition of jubilees.
Its sound will serve as a symbolic call to announce the beginning of the Holy Year and will reinforce the historical and spiritual character of the event.
This recovery adds a particularly visual and sound element to a ceremony that already concentrates much of the attention of the Jacobean world.
A key date for pilgrims
Although Xacobeo 2027 will officially begin with the arrival of the new year, the opening of the Holy Door on December 31 will be the great event that symbolically marks the beginning of the Jubilee.
Santiago expects to receive a very high number of pilgrims and visitors during 2027.
The Camino also reaches the final stretch of 2026 with very high participation figures, which anticipates a particularly intense Holy Year.
For those who are thinking of traveling to Santiago to experience the beginning of the Xacobeo , the most important information is already very specific:
December 31, 2026, at noon.
That will be the moment when the Holy Door opens again.
The Xacobeo 2027 takes shape
During the last weeks, more details of the next Holy Year have been known.
The Archdiocese has already presented the motto, the visual identity and other elements linked to the celebration.
The chosen motto will be “When they saw the star, they were filled with immense joy.”, a biblical reference that aims to relate the star with the idea of the pilgrim who undertakes a guided path towards a goal.
But for those who are thinking of traveling to Santiago to experience the beginning of the Xacobeo , the most important information is already very specific:
December 31, 2026, at noon.
An opening also designed for those who arrive in Santiago
The advance may seem like just a change in schedule, but it will have practical consequences.
It will allow many pilgrims to attend the event and later organize the afternoon and evening of December 31 more easily.
It will also facilitate the management of an event that is expected to attract thousands of people to the area around the Cathedral.
Santiago prepares like this for one of the images that will mark the end of 2026:
the ceremonial knock on the Holy Door, its opening and the sound of the jubilee horn announcing the beginning of a new Holy Year.
And this time, everything will happen in broad daylight.
