The CEIP Punta del Hidalgo has resumed this year the tradition of its particular Carnival sardine, after the break in 2021 due to the pandemic, and these days it has been working on finishing its preparation, in which the students have also put their granite of sand and that has once again had the collaboration of DIARIO DE AVISOS, which, for the second year, has donated 300 copies for its realization.
Thus, students from the fifth year of primary school at this school helped, last Tuesday, to put the note of color on this carnival sardine, which has been made by Juan Carlos Martín, who has been in charge of making the figure of the Machanga for the festivities of the Virgen del Carmen in this coastal town of La Laguna. “A figure in the shape of a fish that is usually burned in Roquete on the last day of the festivities,” explains Juan Carlos, who has his granddaughter studying at said school, which is why they proposed this year to make the Carnival sardine and he accepted.
“First I make a drawing of what I have in mind, then, with wire mesh, I make the structure and fill it with paper and the newspapers that were donated. I give it the shape and then I cover it with paper and glue and shapes are made with balls of paper for the eyes and others and it is painted, ”he explains about the procedure. Later, says Juan Carlos, “the boys have come when it is almost done and I explain to them how I did it, what the burial of the sardine is like, and they painted the base and the fins, things that I leave halfway for them to come and participate. and so they take a little desire” and interest in continuing the tradition.
The Carnival sardine is expected to be ready today, when it will be transferred to the school, where it will remain until tomorrow, when it will be placed in the school garden “and the children will go down the class to see it”, to later take it to the center court , where there will be activities, according to Marta Rodríguez, secretary of the AMPA of the center.
The security and health measures due to COVID have forced this year to suspend the parade that students, teachers, fathers and mothers used to do tomorrow together with the sardine, from the school to the church, where it was burned in the square, as well how to adapt activities
Marta Rodríguez recalls that this tradition began in 2007, when “a school teacher, Nieves Reyes, who is now retired, decided on her own initiative to build a sardine with her First Class for the school’s Carnival celebration. The following year, with the same group, but already in second grade, they do the sardine again, and then the rest of the classes and teachers propose that they participate, because the other children liked the idea very much. This is already a tradition in the school and it continues to be repeated”, incorporating a cavalcade, a batucada and its burning.
Although this year the COVID prevents all the acts from being carried out, the students will be able to see the completely finished Carnival sardine tomorrow and say goodbye to it.
