Wednesday, July 12, 2006
The Virgin del Carmen Puts to Sea
Photo: Fiestas locales del Puerto de la Cruz PuntoInfo
Puerto de la Cruz yesterday was the scene of the Fiestas del Carmen that bring the town of Puerto de la Cruz to fever pitch every July. The effigy of the Virgin del Carmen is carried through the streets to the harbour, where it is then boarded onto a boat, in a ceremony to bless local fishermen.
Some 35,000 people attended the event on a splendid warm afternoon in the old fishing port and the center of the old town for the big day of the fiestas.
Nikki Smith, who has been there, says, "Imagine being at a football match where everyone is supporting the same team, and you will have a sense of the atmosphere in Puerto, on Tenerife's northern coast, during the Fiesta."
She adds that "it's a heady mix of the spiritual and the secular". As with most of these apparently religious events on the island, it not quite what it seems at first glance - once you add in a plentiful supply of beer and a bit of blasphemy!
Virgin of the Atlantic
La Virgen se hizo a la mar
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