There are few things in Candelaria like the municipal Bethlehem to collect in about 50 square meters all the meaning of the towns and people of this marine and Marian municipality. Rescued for the street 15 years ago by the former Councilor for Culture, Alfredo Arencibia, the Nativity Scene candelariero is one of the most visited on the Island and it seems that its originality does not leave surprising every year, although it maintains the essence of teaching in a small tour of the eight towns of the municipality and characters of all known. This year, in addition, with a solidarity novelty, the presence, at the end of the route, of the La Palma volcano as a piggy bank. From Friday night you can visit it and it will be open until February.
The Bethlehem of Candelaria began in 2001 at the entrance to the Town Hall. The following year, Alfredo Arencibia decided to theme it and dedicate each year to a town in the Villa, supported by the municipal sewing and crafts workshop, which then designed replicas of the most significant buildings in each town, including, of course, the great Basilica. The hall of the Consistory not only remained small, but was not visible to the passer-by. It was in 2007 when the Bethlehem was installed outside the La Villa Cultural Center, right in the epicenter of the town, where every year it has grown, going from plaster to polyurethane, and a grotto has developed under the Indian laurels of the Old Cinema for the birth, as far as it goes from the midlands of Candelaria to the sea that bathes the Plaza de la Patrona.
Although it is true that the City Council has made an effort to increase lighting and decorations, such as the spectacular fir tree in the Plaza de la Patrona -this year it has gone from 70,000 to almost 110,000 euros in budget-, it is still the spectacular Bethlehem who distinguishes Christmas in Candelaria, for collecting in it a good part of its history and most deeply rooted traditions.
A work of months, where, under the coordination of Alfredo Arencibia, personnel from Municipal Services and Culture collaborate, so that there is no missing detail, that the water of the ravines runs, that the mills move or that the stars shine. And this year with more effort if possible by adding 15 new figures in movement and a total of 100 more characters, 10 of them handcrafted by municipal personnel, such as the artist Pepe Dámaso, a town crier of the last festivities of the Virgin in August. .
In the Bethlehem we can continue to see the seven couples that represent each island, the boats of the Candelaria fishermen and a group of women with the offering to the Virgin. Rosaura Marrero, with her basket of jareas on her head, Laura Brito, with her cart and the milk chicks, recreated in two figures, Carmen Castellano and Cándida Delgado.
You can also find a cart full of wheat and an ox with the rancher Pedro Molina, the former president of Agate or a series of farmers working the land and making wine and images of daily life, both in the midlands and on the coast. without forgetting the religious details, beyond the Nativity itself, where the tour ends, or the Basilica, highlights Saint Joseph and the Virgin looking for an inn or the Annunciation of Mary. Also significant is the representation of the Guanches before the Patron Saint of August 14, the bands Las Candelas and Nueva Banda, the fought, the funeral presided over by the Dominican Daniel López with his sacristan Paco Pinto -Citizen Participation Councilor-, the dance of the Igueste ribbons, Father Jesús Mendoza in the church of Santa Ana, the tribute to the workers of the water galleries, fisherwomen, potters … a whole tribute to the towns and neighbors of Candelaria.
