Authorities from the Hindu and Hare Krishna communities together with members of the Arona corporation, headed by its mayor, José Julián Mena, yesterday began the XI Festival of India, which is celebrated on what is known as the Golden Mile of Playa de las Americas and which hosts both the Arona Yogafest and the Ratha Yatra, one of the most important Hindu celebrations in the world.
In Spain, the most relevant are those that take place in Madrid, Barcelona and Arona. This year’s guest of honor was His Holiness Yadunanda Swami, teacher of the Hare Krishna community of Brihuega (Guadalajara).
Organized by the municipal areas of Tourism and Culture, the Iskon Tenerife Association and the La Pineda Neighborhood Association, both the Festival of India and the Yogafest and Ratha Yatra provide a series of activities that run from Saturday afternoon until tonight, with content that revolves around the spiritual, crafts, dance or cinema of this culture.
In the case of the Ratha Yatra, one of the highlights of the weekend, it will take place this afternoon on the Golden Mile of Playa de las Américas, specifically at 7:30 p.m., with the reception of the Divinities, the so-called pooja of the coconuts and the procession through Rafael Puig and Las Américas avenues, which will end with a free tasting of vegetarian products, all surrounded by a traditional Indian atmosphere and aesthetics, which give this celebration a great showiness.
Both the mayor of Arona and the councilor for Tourism, José Alberto Delgado, attended the opening of the Festival of India yesterday. The municipal councilor stated in his speech that “Arona celebrates being a diverse and multicultural municipality, with citizens of 130 nationalities, who have different heritages and roots. In this case – he added – we accompany a community that has a great presence and enormous roots among us, closely linked to commercial activity and that has had a particularly bad time in the years of economic crisis linked to the pandemic.
