Flowers and fireworks: devotion and ephemeral art

Flowers and fireworks, is the colourful combination that highlights the feast in Los Realejos. Of its large festive calendar, it is the Cross Day – on 3 of May – the one with an special fragance, stands out because of the amount of people coming from everywhere in the mainland in these last years. They come along with the appeal of this marbellous sample of the ephemeral art, made up of a brilliant decoration of the crosses which are situated all along the municipality and afterwards, the great pyrotechnic exhibition regarded as one of that reaches its highest point at the end of that day. The Realejero landscape stands out with the fireworks explosions beauty, wich last over three hours.

From 10 a.m. onwards, a number of points of information and stands for the tourist promotion of the municipality are set up to receive the visitors. From there it is situated the place where the guided routes in different languages start to go later through the main parts of the festivities area. People counted on free transport fitted by the Tourism Post Councillor. Apart from that, the tourist can enjoy our samples of craftsmanship, buy and taste of wines and pastrymaking of Los Realejos, besides the folklore, the religious expressions, the fireworks shows, etc.

Though all these festivities are celebrated all across the municipal district, two of the town nucleus are the centres of importance: the well known roads of El Medio and El Sol, in Realejo Alto, and La Cruz Santa.

Crosses

The place names, heraldry and the genealogy of the Spanish lands and towns dotted about the name of the Cross, however any place does not stand out like Los Realejos. This religious event is understood as much from its historical origins, as for the devotion to the Holy Log that is widely related to the Franciscan presence in this Nothern town.

In the first case, it takes its origin in the last stage of the conquest of the Canary Islands – in Los Realejos in 1496 – and the placing of a wooden cross which afterwards would be the Church of Santiago Apostle (the first Christian temple of Tenerife). From this old log there are still remains inside the silk filigree cross (dated from 1677) and it takes part of the immense heritage of the above mentioned religious building.

Respect to the second, it is outstanding the foundation of the Franciscan monastery of Saint Lucía in the beginnings of the XVII century, something that caused the retiring friors put crosses in further places from the main town, at the side of the roads or the ones the Vía Crucis themselves set up.

In the XVIII century the celebrations went on despite the restrictions imposed by the civil and ecclesiastic authorities who sought to forbid almost everything: bonfires of the eve days, fireworks, night dancings and also some processions. In spite of it , along this municipality they came one after the other, without taking care of the authorities of that time. In the starting of the second half of the XIX century the religious cults and the festivities increased with the use of bowers, fruits archs or the celebration of sprees. Among other acts.

Processions were the foremost event ofthe day, and by going over the respective crosses, people took a rest to worship the Holy Log with the placing of flowers in it, something that favoured the beginning of the celebrations.

The crosses were in need of chapels, therefore during the day of the feast they were rustled up with chestnut branches and canes which were then covered with new sheets given by the neighbours. At the same time, altarpieces were made with branches and flowers which people brought from their houses, following up the same patteen of the current bowers.

Nowadays, Los Realejos has, all over the municipality about three hundreds of that Christian symbol, which are present in chapels, main fronts, temples, private houses, in the heads of the streets, rocks and cliffs in the sea and in the forest, roads of service and royal roads, viewpoints or simply stuck in the ground, are identity signs of the Village. It has been such a deep – rooted feast that this day has been chosen as the local festivity of Los Realejos.

Apart from that, this tradition has aroused the fascination of thousands of tourists and visitors coming from other places of the island, of the Canarian archipielago and the mainland, who turn up that day to enjoy admiring such floral works, rised there by the Realejero people.

In the streets of the town nucleus of La Cruz Santa that beautiful custom has got another way that consists in embellishing the small home – made crosses kept safely all over the year, and afterwards people open their doors to all those interested in looking at them.

The “pique” and the fireworks

Long ago the procession started at 12 in the morning, after the Mass at ten going through the already embellished roads. But, with the passing of time, the pyrotechnic exhibitions were acquiring such an importance that the procession of the Cross was postponed from midday to night to observe in a better clarity the colours which that new way of celebration offered. Together with it, a new feast was born at the sometime to the one of the Crosses: that of the fireworks.

From that time onwards, those feasts have been remarkably enriched with the great pyrotechnic show that takes place in El Medio and El Sol streets. It showiness is due to the masterhip of the pirotechnic factories of the municipal district, one of them the Toste Brothers Pyrotechnics, with more than two hundred years of trajectory, regarded as the oldest pyrotechnic enterprise of Spain.

Behind those celebrations there is a circunstance which has been essential for its survical: the rivalry – “el pique”- between El Sol and El Medio streets. In the last ages this behaviour was on the point of provoking altercations dimensions at present regarded as simple anecdotes and as a lovely part of the festivals.

Some scholars point out that this “pique” comes from 1770 and the existence of two well distinguished social classes: the owners of the lands where El Medio street passes also known as the “Marquises street”, were clergymen, military men and people with a prestigious lineage dwelt; and the owners of the adjsining properties and the poor peasants of El Sol street. That condition has been understood as the outbreak of the well – known “pique”, as it is true that after the emigration to Venezuela, these so marked economic contrasts passed away.

The continuous competition consisted of doing the passage of the Cross during the procession, each street burnt fires, smokes in colours and people made a lot of noise, so that the one that had done the greatest fires, the biggest smoke pillars or the noisiest voices achieved the popular recognition. But after the invasion of the pyroyecnichs, real battles with explosive devices and rockets which rode the sky in a horizontal position looking for the “adversary” street. Because of those reasons, the celebrations of the Cross day became a rightful excuse to confront, and therefore it ended by banishing to a secondary place the religious nature of them.

With the passing of time imagination made this way of expression be improved starting to manufacture wheels of fire made of canes, and once they were immersed in that whirlpool of overcoming it was possible to add, to the wheel – known wheels of canes, a device which made them to be raised up to get some few obzens of metres and that would happen to be afterwards the so worthy rockets at present times.

Each street organizes its feast day in a separate way competing between them in magnitude and showiness. This preparation starts from the time the celebrations of the last year finish. Then, another tradition begins, the so called “copper of the Cross”. Since there is a need of getting money to deal with the expected spending, the feast commitees ask for money from door to door and all the neighbours and the sympathizers collaborate with a monthly fee.

Different activities throughout the year are made to get increased the money. It is also a contribution the funds many people send from outside the municipality and the ones collected in each chapel of the Cross. In ancient times people embroidered tableclothes, kept piglets and there was also a time when colts were raised to sell them afterwards. It is worthy to mention the effort of the neighbours to carry on thes Feasts of the Cross, because they did not receive grants either official aids of any kind.

All these circumstances have made thiscelebration one of finest historical samples of the artistic and ethnographic heritage of Los Realejos.