The Cunning Canary

Día de Santa Lucia is St Lucia Day and is held on December 13th every year. It is a Swedish festival which is a mixture of Scandinavian and Canarian traditions. Santa Lucia was a martyr who died on December 13th because she helped the first Christian settlers. The churches are illuminated (very festive!) and there are street parties with food and drink, music and dancing. There is an animal show too.

The fiesta has been held since 1967 in Santa Lucia de Tirajana in the north of the island, which is very green (well, for Gran Canaria anyway, where it is mostly rocky and desert-like!)

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This fiesta takes place in Puerto de la Aldea, which is in San Nicolás del Torentino, between 7 and 11 September every year. In English, it is “Festival of the Lagoon”. The lagoon was created when the sea waves merged with the fresh water streams from Gran Canaria’s central mountains. The Fiesta del Charco is one of the oldest Gran Canarian festivals and probably dates back to pre-Hispanic times.

Photo By Ainvar12

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The Gran Canaria carnival is a brilliant time on Gran Canaria. It’s a lot of fun and there’s a great atmosphere.  Some revellers take part at the very beginning of the carnival, in whichever town it starts, and follow it all over the island from town to town, only stopping when they are totally knackered! The timing of the carnival is flexible and alters each year but once it gets going, it is contagious and the whole island enjoys it. I’ve been to a few and it’s always plenty of fun!

Photo By Howie_Berlin

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Even though we have recently had some bad forest fires on Gran Canaria recently, Bajada de la Rama (or ‘Bringing Down the Branches’) went ahead anyway - without the branches! The Mayor suggested using green hankies instead. This year’s festival was also a tribute to the loss of houses, plants and wildlife.

Photo By L.Gilpellin

What happens in this Bajada de la Rama is that branches are snapped off the pine trees and carried from Tamadaba (the pine forest at over 3000 feet altitude) in the early morning. The procession goes through Agaete, accompanied by the Agaete Municipal Band, and on to Puerto de las Nieves. They arrive there at night time. Here, the pine branches are thrashed in the sea. This is an ancient Guanche ritual to ensure there will be adequate rain for next season’s crops. The action of thrashing the branches on the sea is like a prayer to the Gods for rain.

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You might have heard in the news that the Canary Islands (especially Gran Canaria and La Gomera) have suffered some bad forest fires recently! What made it so awful was that we had temperatures of 50ºC and high winds so the fires spread worrying quickly. We had ashes in the air and people couldn’t even cool off in swimming pools because they were black with ash.

Photo By Elesar1

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