There are not a few who consider the Rise of Relief much more authentic than The descentperhaps because it is more familiar, more collected, more religious or because it maintains traditions such as that of the pairs or odds and the emotional break halfway, in La Tahona, where a neighbor always wipes the face of the Virgin.
However, there are two ascents, that secluded and religious one, and another very different one that is carried out by floats and young people, when the sound of bucio or parrandas is drowned out by the decibels of reggaeton, accompanied by a good dose of alcohol, like a bottle andante, which concludes with nightfall with the verbenas in San Pedro.
Yesterday this devotion was fully lived again, with much less participation than the Bajada, something already traditional, despite being Thursday and a holiday in Güímar. However, from early in the morning, the village of Socorro kept up its festivities, first with the floral offering of athletes from all over the Valley -the ninth edition- and then with up to three religious concelebrations, the one at noon, with the music by Amigos del Arte, and the voices of the Miguel Castillo choir, without missing the exciting paso doble Al Socorro, shortly before the Virgin procession through the village. Already in the afternoon, in the last of the thanksgiving masses, officiated by the parish priest Pedro Pérez, the Virgin was bid farewell, who began, shortly after five o’clock, the traditional Ascent, with the sun still very present.
Thousands of güimareros began the journey, while behind them some twenty floats took part in the Descent, this time with a notable youth role.
Along the way, they went back in time with the odds or evens game, which consists of taking some almonds in your hand and, keeping your fist clenched, asking the person of the other sex you meet the following sentence: “Evens or odds?” none?”. If the questioned person is correct, you have to give him all the hidden almonds in his hand. Some say that with this game many marriages were closed in Güímar.
a punctual rise
An Ascent that began punctually and that passed quickly until the arrival at La Tahona, where, as is traditional, a neighbor cleaned the face of the image, once the dust of the road had been overcome. On this occasion, the honor went to María de los Ángeles Pérez Rosa, a resident of El Puertito de Güímar.
From there began the solemn procession that took her to the hermitage of El Calvario and, later, to the Plaza de San Pedro, where she was received at the main door, after ten o’clock at night, to the rhythm of the tajaraste of the Danza de Cintas. . There gathered those who walked out of devotion and faith, those who do it with friends and the youngest, those who accompanied the floats -cars in fact- to make their particular bottle, as if it were a carnival more , which had its epilogue at midnight, when the verbena began, with the Tropin orchestra and the Virgin already sleeping next to Saint Peter until next September 7, if there is no pandemic to prevent it.
Waiting to know the data of the Rise and, above all, of last night’s festival, the health incidents left a balance of fifty interventions in the field hospital on Wednesday, almost all due to heat strokes, fainting spells and intoxications alcohol, something almost insignificant when talking about more than 60,000 people, who gathered throughout the day in the small village, which is home to about 300 residents who live between Chimisay beach, where Chaxiraxi appeared more than 500 years ago , and the Industrial Estate that has eaten up land, part of the traditional path that Güimareros and Tenerife residents have traveled for about 180 years, in what is considered the oldest pilgrimage in the Canary Islands.
