The procession began as a way of giving thanks by those who survived the seventeenth-century plague the decimated the Valdostane population. The custom seems to have begun in 1630, when the plague left the Municipality of Gignod for good.
The Chaligne procession, which is also known as the Fourclaz procession, includes two processions which are distinctively separate and which share the celebration of the mass on the summit, at 2,608 m). In fact, the community of believers in Gignod, and those in the hamlets of Aosta and Excenex meet in the so-called “Plan des Débats” to reach Point Chaligne together.
The custom of processing upwards to Chaligne probably existed as early as 1630, which seems to indicate certain elements that characterise the ritual: the blessing of water contained in a bell and the procedure of partly drinking it and then using it to bless the followers and surrounding land, makes one think of a preferred rite to call the rain.