The ringing of the bells

The historic town hosted one of the highlights of its annual festivities. The neighbors were involved in the exaltation of traditions and typical elements of these celebrations. Residents and visitors experience the act in different ways: on the street or in their homes, on floats, in bars or as spectators on the sidewalks; the devotion and promises of some, along with the fun and food of almost everyone.

Tens of thousands of people, including residents, visitors or tourists, witnessed or participated in this Sunday in one of the most important festive events of the year in Los Realejos, such as the Pilgrimage in honor of San Isidro Labrador and Santa María de head. The residents are involved in ensuring that the celebration is increasingly visually rich and the encouragement given to it by the City Council complements the effort of many citizens to magnify this element of their cultural heritage. There are many ways to live this experience. Some people observe from the chairs or leaning on the facades the passing of the carts, floats and folkloric groups; others spend a good part of the hours partying in some bars, some are dressed in traditional costumes, others with the typical ones and the rest in any way; there are some who use their garages as a venue for meetings and meals, while others celebrate the special moment of the year “inside doors” in their homes.

One of the members of the musical group Magec, Peraza, from La Orotava, and three other friends, two of tacoronte and another from Las Palmas, began their particular pilgrimage long before the mass ended and the saints left the church. In the La Tajea bar they animate the clientele with their open-air songs. Meanwhile, with more than an hour to go before the departure of the procession, there are already numerous people sitting in the chairs placed on Los Remedios avenue.

The church of Santiago Apóstol was filled to follow the Eucharist. The Tigaray folkloric group, under the direction of Samuel Fumero, performed Noches de San Juan Bendito. And then the offerings came. Afterwards, the members of the aforementioned collective interpreted some malagueñas. And while part of the faithful took communion, they sang heartfelt folias: “San Isidro Labrador, patron saint of the cement company, gives the peasant courage, so that he does not die of hunger.”

The Los Realejos Pilgrimage is no longer understood without the night of the eve celebrating the Ocho Islas Folk Festival, one of the best known and most relevant in the Archipelago for many formations. Outside the temple several members of Coros y Danzas Arrecife await, which this year represented Lanzarote. On the stage of Plaza Viera y Clavijo, this group offered the public Seguidillas de Lanzarote, Isa del Uno and Malagueñas. Two of its members, Fran Ferrer and Marián Luzardo, explain that they have been participating in the festival and the pilgrimage for many years. «The public always welcomes us very well, as if it were the first year», they indicate. They explain that they face her participation “with great pleasure, we always want to come to enjoy”. On this occasion, they are dressed in the costumes that the British Alfred Diston drew in rabbit lands and that correspond to the clothing of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. The folkloric groups La Oliva, from Fuerteventura; Guadalupe, from Gran Canaria; Hautacuperche, from La Gomera; Sabinosa, from El Hierro; Parranda Los Toledo, from La Graciosa; Nambroque, from La Palma, and Guayacsanta, from The Realejos.

At the end of the mass, the parish priest thanked the residents for having festivities that begin before the day of the Cross, on May 2, and last until June. And he also invited attendees “not to get tired of coming because the festivities are over.” And, in addition, he invited families and groups from the municipality to make the rugs for the Corpus Christi.

The members of the Sabinosa folk group enter the church with their dance of the Virgen de los Reyes to accompany the departure of Santa María de la Cabeza and San Isidro Labrador. From that moment, the bells begin to ring the tajaraste and the branches in branches move from one side to the other to announce that the Pilgrimage is about to begin. The vision of religious images causes emotion in some people, each with their own particular circumstances.

The act was also enjoyed by Juan de la Cruz Rodríguez, researcher of traditional Canarian clothing. He explains that the use of the costumes “has varied a lot, both for the better and for the worse”, since in 1994 he published his book Textiles and clothing Tenerife. He comments that there are people who are aware of how a suit should be worn, others who invent their models and the rest, “he believes that anything is worth it.” For De la Cruz, this Sunday’s event is “a pilgrimage with a great participation of the people here.” And he emphasizes this, since he qualifies that “in other towns, the neighbors flee” before these celebrations. He clarifies that the difference is that in Los Realejos “the pilgrimage is made by the neighbors and is enriched by the participation of the groups from the Festival the night before.”

For decades, the decoration of the façade of the house of the professor and researcher José María Mesa, on Calle Del Medio, is one of the most relevant and outstanding. On the day of the pilgrimage, some of his friends and acquaintances come to visit him. At the time of him, Mesa published the book Los Realejos, historical and devotional landmarks of its May festivities, as a result of a proclamation of the holidays. For this natural historian from Guía de Isora, the Pilgrimage “is a lively festival, which originally began in the celebration of the Day of the Cross, paid for by the streets, by the neighbors.” He warns that what is perceived in the festive celebration itself is supported by the Folk Festival the night before, by conferences on clothing and by posters that encourage the correct use of traditional and typical clothing. That is to say, that “by the City Council there has been an awareness of the citizens.”