The history of World Youth Day began in 1985. The event was initiated by Pope John Paul II, who was inspired by the Long-Life Movement (a Poland-based movement of renewal in the Catholic Church) and the 1985 celebration of the International Youth Year in Saint Peter’s Square in Rome, which coincided with Palm Sunday.
The inaugural World Youth Day was celebrated in 1986. Back then, it wasn’t an international festival. For the first celebration, bishops were invited to hold youth events in their dioceses on Palm Sunday. The holiday is still celebrated on Palm Sunday when it’s observed at the diocesan level, but the World Youth Day event can be held on different dates entirely. It usually takes place in July or August, although there were years when the festival was held in January.
The first World Youth Day festival was held from April 6 to April 12 in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires. About a million young people participated in the festivities. Since its inception, the festival has been held in Spain, Poland, the United States, the Philippines, France, Italy, Canada, Germany, Australia, Brazil, and Panama. Every year, it draws hundreds of thousands of participants from all over the world.
The schedule of events at World Youth Day usually includes catechetical sessions, pilgrimages to local holy sites, reconciliation opportunities, prayer, shows, music, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Mass, and other events and activities. The most important tradition of World Youth Day is the public appearance of the Pope, who travels through the host city in his popemobile and leads the final Mass of the festival. After the Mass, the dates of the next World Youth Day festival and the next host diocese are announced by the Pope.
The closing Mass of World Youth Day can draw over a million people. An estimated 5 million people attended the 1995 Mass in the Philippines, setting a world record for the largest number of people gathered for a single religious event. It was broken 20 years later, when over 6 million people attended the Mass that concluded Pope Francis’s visit to the Philippines in January 2015.
Each World Youth Day, regardless of whether it is celebrated internationally or at the diocesan level, has a theme, which is usually a quote from the Bible. Each international event has several official patron saints, who are chosen from among the saints born in the host country or region. For example, World Youth Day 2019 was held in Panama, and its patron saints included Saint Óscar Romero, Saint José Sánchez del Río, Saint Juan Diego, Blessed María Romero Meneses, Saint John Bosco, Saint Martin de Porres, Saint Rose of Lima. In addition, Saint Pope John Paul II has been the patron saint of every World Youth Day since his canonization in 2014 as the founder of the event.
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