The municipality of Los Realejos, with more than 80 annual celebrations, is the most festive in Spain, being its May Festivals, and especially the festival of Crosses and Fires, of national tourist interest and which is commemorated on May 2 and 3. , which most prominently champion the festive identity of a town that has managed, through popular and family heritage, to preserve and extend its intangible cultural heritage and turn its traditions into a differential fact, a claim and a tourist potential.
From this same Saturday, April 29, a new edition of the May Festival will begin with the reading of the proclamation, by the renowned communicator Raúl Arencibia, with an outstanding radio career and as presenter of the program ‘Tenderete’ on TVE in the Canary Islands and the International Channel. In this act, framed in a gala tribute to the folkloric tradition in Los Realejos, the 12 candidates for the title of Romera Mayor, who aspire to replace Miriam Negrín Torres, will also be presented.
The May Festivities of Los Realejos, which this year 2023, due to the parenthesis of the electoral appointment, will last until June 6, are made up of three devotional landmarks, on the one hand, the Cross, and on the other, San Isidro Labrador and Santa María de la Cabeza and, finally, Nuestra Señora de Los Remedios.
Recognized as a festival of national tourist interest since 2015, the Cruces y Fuegos de Mayo festival takes place between the 2nd and 3rd of that month. It is said that in Los Realejos there are more than 300 crosses that are decorated these days. Specifically, in the first of these days and in the center of La Cruz Santa, there are around 80 private crosses on facades, windows or patios, which are proudly displayed, among colorful branches, to those who visit the town.
Already on May 3, the spotlight turns to the Silver Cross that guards the Matriz del Apóstol Santiago Parish, with the Eucharist and midday procession, followed by a spectacular daytime fireworks, and with a new procession arriving at 10:00 p.m. of the night where the festive commissions of El Sol and El Medio symbolize a famous and healthy pile of offerings to the Cross in the decorations of its streets, in floral displays in its chapels and in fireworks in the sky, starring in one of the largest fireworks displays in all of Europe.
After the fire hangover, the festive program continues and soon delves into different moments of exaltation of popular Canarian traditions. This year, in addition, giving space to an event of national scope and international projection, such as the Miss World Spain pageant, which will take place in Los Realejos, in Plaza Viera y Clavijo, next Saturday, May 6, with candidates for the title coming from the 52 provinces and autonomous cities of all Spain, an event to which they will attend with the typical and traditional clothing of their regions of origin, promoting the correct use of them.
Among others of the more than 70 appointments marked in the festive calendar of this May royalejero, the gala of election of its Romera Mayor on Saturday, May 13, the gastronomic and musical event ‘Realejeros sing to their people’ on Sunday, May 14 stand out. , the so-called Girl Pilgrimage on the saint’s day of San Isidro Labrador on Monday, May 15, the popular and massive Magicians’ Dance on Saturday, May 20, the traditional Livestock Fair on Saturday, June 3 in the morning, the same day that will celebrate a new edition of the dean Festival of the Islands (with representation of folkloric groups from the 8 Canary Islands), the Regional Pilgrimage in honor of San Isidro Labrador and Santa María de la Cabeza on June 4 and the so-called Monday of Remedies on June 5 June, culminating in the program with the usual Children’s Magicians Ball on Tuesday, June 6.
