The lagoon town of Saint Michael of Geneto yesterday recovered its traditional Pilgrimage in honor of San Miguel Arcángel, as the culminating moment of a festivities that began last Thursday and will have its epilogue next Saturday the 8th, organized by the Geneto Festival Commission. Yesterday’s event featured the participation of carts, folk groups and musical groups from this lagoon enclave.
The act started at 11:00 am, with the celebration of the Eucharist in the parish of San Miguel Arcángel. At the end, the image of the saint went out in procession to meet the Pilgrimage, taking a short break upon arrival in Las Cruces. Meanwhile, the Pilgrimage departed at 12:00 noon from La Piconera, following the usual route to the soccer field. To conclude with the tasting of a community paella and dance with the Olympia Sonora Orchestra and the Pa Ti Group.
Both the mayor of The lagoonLuis Yeray Gutiérrez, like the Councilor for Fiestas, Badel Albelo, who attended the celebration, expressed their satisfaction with “the recovery, after the pandemic, of this Pilgrimage that is an expression of the idiosyncrasies of the residents of Geneto, and that arose from their will to magnify the festivals of their people and honor the traditions they inherited from their ancestors.
The Pilgrimage of San Miguel de Geneto has more than a quarter of a century of history. Its origins date back to 1995, when the neighbor María del Cristo López Trujillo proposed to the parish priest of San Miguel that he ask the bishop the possibility of having a Pilgrimage in the town. Although Saint Michael the Archangel is not properly “an agricultural saint, he is also known as San Miguelito de las Viñas, for which he well deserves a Pilgrimage”, according to María del Cristo López Trujillo herself, who conveyed that proposal to all the groups that formed the Cultural Union, such as the Geneto Women’s Association, San Borondón and Los Jovenes Geneteros, “being approved unanimously by the 35 members that made up the board of directors.
