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 Popular traditions and customs |
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Tablas de San Andrés
Nov. 29 of every year marks the eve of San Andres’s day which also opens the festival of new wine with store-houses inviting both residents and visitors to sample the juice obtained for the year’s harvest. Those partaking of the annual activity are also offered roasted chestnuts as an accompaniment.
This festival deeply ingrained among the residents of Icod de los Vino's citizens, involves sliding on "tablas" or boards-some said originally done by torchlight--down the steeply sloping neighborhood streets. A highlight of the party is seen in Plano street where youths speed and steer along these slippery boards.
This activity was born out of the need to transport wood from the highest zones of the municipality down to the workshops where it was used in handicrafts and in naval construction.
The wood traveled down the then unpaved El Amparo street on the back of a large board or plank, while "oars" of heather or fayatree (Myrica faya) branches were used to brake and steer, thus avoiding the endless obstacles one may find along the way.
Nowadays other types of "boards" are used -- metal, plastic, automotive suspensions, etc. -- which though efficient is a far cry from the origin of the San Andrés boards.
Every year the municipal authorities take a break from this usual practice and re-enact the tradition of the "tables." Many visitors come from other parts of the island to see the annual festival, as do tourists.
Los Hachitos
Translated literally as “the little torches" it has pagan origins, a remnant of a so-called summer solstice fire cult. This holiday involves a parade held in Icod de los Vinos from San Marcos to El Amparo, passing through Las Charnecas and El Lomo de Las Canales.
It is possible that the parade route approaches the sea in anticipation of the sunrise. To the son rhythm of the tajaraste drums, los hachitos come out during the festival of San Juan Bautista on 23 June.
These materials are made of rags soaked in petroleum and placed in high areas of the city to create pictures out of light (stars, hearts, crosses, and so on), or are thrown down the mountain to evoke a lava flow.
Others are decorated with branches, flowers and ribbons and carried up the mountain to create multi-colored spectacles.
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El Diablo y La Diabla
A tradition popular in the neighborhoods and settlements which depicted the battle waged by the forces of hell against St. Michael.
In this presentation the male and female devils (el diablo y la diabla) are accompanied by their court of giants and dwarves who danced to the rhythm of the tajaraste much to the amusement of the spectators. The custom was banned by local authorities at first who said it invited disorder and distraction from religious devotion.
Still the custom continues to be practiced, evidence of this being the today el diablo y la diabla continues to be conducted in mid-September through the neighborhood of Las Angustias (The Anguishes) in honor of the Virgin.
Los Guanches de La Candelaria
Every August 15 in the zone known as La Candelaria, a statue of the Virgin is put on procession, where townsfolk dressed like Guanches stage the first encounter of the Guanches with the Virgin.
After this the spectators accompany the procession to an area where they are honored with a shower of artificial fireworks.
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The Pilgrimage of the Poleo
In El Amparo, the holiday of its patron saint usually consists of a pilgrimage conducted to the rhythm of the "tajaraste.” The occasion also involves going to the mountain to collect the branch and the poleo to be used to adorn the neighborhood during the festival days.
In these festivals usually held at the beginning of August, the decoration of the better half of the church is said to have assumed a special significance.
The adornment of the main door, called "bollo," is an enormous sponge cake, coated with small sugar figurines, the "alfeñiques", all adorned with many colored ribbons. The rest of the arch is adorned with palm, poleo, etc., and some baskets of fruit which hang from the roof.
Finally there are the "madamas," large bread figures hang in the roofs adorned with bows and dressed very colorfully.
Baskets and Pastries of Santa Bárbara
In the town of Sta. Barbara, one of several in Icod de los Vinos, a fair of baskets and pastries is held ever August in honor of its patron saint. This popular rite is typified by its ingenious offering, based on garden produce.
The baskets are decorated with fruits and vegetables which are then placed in the plaza, particularly in the portico of the church to add more color to the festivities. The pastries are figurines made out of sugar in the shape of animals and adorned with multicolored ribbons by neighborhood artists.
These singular figures are carried on the heads of single women and matchmakers of the neighborhood to place them among the baskets in the church portico, as an offering and homage to saints.
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