It had not struck seven in the afternoon and the rain, as if it were another neighbor, made an appearance in the enclosure of the Plaza del Príncipe de Santa Cruz, where, yesterday, the act of lighting the Christmas lighting. With a capacity limited to 750 people, the same rain made it far from complete. The umbrellas were the protagonists in an act that began with the Gospel Shine Voices choir singing Hallelujah. The mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, advocated a “quiet Christmas” in which “prevention and precaution” should prevail, “and from the City Council we are going to help to achieve it.”
“We are excited to meet again here, with an act that marks the beginning of Christmas, for which we have prepared a program of activities adjusted to COVID measures, with 3.5 million LED bulbs or the planting of those 40,000 flowers of Easter, ”said José Manuel Bermúdez.
Accompanied by the Children’s Queen of Carnival 2020, Violeta García, and the chicharrera artist Ariann Music, to the rhythm of All want for Christmas is you, played by the artist herself, the mayor pressed the switch that filled the Plaza del Príncipe with light, while the rain continued to fall, this time mixed with the confetti that fell after the ignition occurred.
Ariann Music, who premiered a Christmas song composed for the occasion, admitted that it was a dream come true for her to have been able to participate in the lighting of the Christmas lights in Santa Cruz. At 16 years old, the special guest of last night’s act, she already has more than 10 million followers on social networks, and has participated in television contests such as La Voz Kids España or Canta Mi Niño, where she received the award for Best Show Television for the mixture of her facets as a dancer, cellist and singer.
After the act of the Plaza del Príncipe, the mayor, together with the first deputy mayor, Guillermo Díaz Guerra, the party councilor, Alfonso Cabello, or the security councilor, Evelyn Alonso, and other members of the government team, made the traditional tour of the streets already decked out for Christmas.
illumination
Regarding lighting, for this Christmas campaign, the City Council, through the Department of Public Services and the offices of the five districts, will light 162 streets in the city, 22 more than last year; the installation of 207 arches, while in 2020 there were 176; of 686 Christmas motifs on the streetlights last year, this will be 908; the city will have 29,000 meters of garlands and 90 meters of tunnels, with approximately 30,000 LEDs.
In addition, for a week the five districts of the city have already been adorned with about 50,000 poinsettias, within the traditional planting campaign of this characteristic plant variety of Christmas. On this occasion, some 28,000 red and 9,000 white poinsettias will be allocated, and, in addition, 2,000 red units, 1,500 fuchsia, 4,700 white, 1,000 pink and 1,300 nuanced type poinsettias will be planted of the princetia variety.
With the act of last night, the Christmas period is considered inaugurated, and it does so coinciding today with the celebration of the day of Black Friday, which is the starting gun, commercially speaking, for Christmas.
In the coming weeks, and always depending on how the pandemic evolves, Santa Cruz has prepared a fortnight of events distributed throughout the city, which include from Christmas markets, to parades with Christmas carols, or the placement of real mailboxes in schools to that the little ones can send their letters to the Magi.
The acts of welcoming Their Majesties at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium and the Parade through the streets of downtown Santa Cruz are still on the air, at the expense of receiving express authorization from Public Health for their celebration. It will be next week when it is known, at least that is what the Santa Cruz City Council hopes, if finally these mass events can be held in the capital.
