ANTIGUOS RITOS DEL CORPUS DE LA LAGUNA

San Cristóbal de La Laguna
- Patrimonio Inmaterial. Fiestas y Tradiciones -

0
Valorar

Text by Historian Manuel Hern ndez Gonz lez.

Professor of History of America. University of La Laguna.

The festival of Corpus Christi is the oldest in La Laguna. I was born in 1496 (*) when it was still in a military camp. Converted into a feast for the par excellence of the Church (*) and as a symbol of its victory against heresy, it shows its syncretic will to integrate beliefs and devotions of diverse origin and nature. Group the blood and the awakening of Nature. It is the expression of the new political and religious order that will have been erected. It was funded from the beginning by the guilds and by the Lagunero town hall.

Its central axis is its procession, which in full battle against the Protestant heresy reveals the symbiosis between the Body of Christ and that of the social. It is configured as the staging of the exaltation of the Dogma and the strict division into classes and groups of society. The apotheosis of Nature is shown in the collection of branches and flowers, performed by the guilds. The vegetation covered all the streets with its fruit arches, high branches and carpeted soil with flowers and foliage.

It was the votive celebration of society conceived as a body that honors the Lord for the fruitfulness of the earth. It reflects a great allegory of the social structure of La Laguna by aligning it as a parade in rigorous pyramidal order of the different social groups (guilds, guilds, clergy, authorities, etc.), which, according to their distinction and quality, renewed annually through this act the ancestral and substantive myth of the feudal world, that is, the imaginary representation of reality in hierarchical form. Together with her the evil incarnations parade in symbolic battle , which are defeated by the Eucharist to: the devils, the bicha or tarasca, along with the matachines, the giants and the big heads.

The invocation of fertility is reflected in the trees that provide the fruit and with it the continuity of life. If the Corpus Thursday showed the gratitude of the entire social fabric hierarchy to the protective God to guarantee the continuity of the social order and the harvests, the Eighth was precisely the confirmation of that resurrection, just eight days later. Redemption through fire and candles has helped the Christ Sun to continue expanding the heat of its rays on the face of the earth. The Blood of Christ has redeemed the world and raised the seed.

1.- Band of bugles and drums. Music constitutes an important part of the former Corpus celebration. See Photo: Horn and Drum Band 'Sentir Green or

2.- Giants and big heads. The monstrous elements reflected the battle between good and evil. Part of them were the gigantons and the papahuevos, dwarfs with big heads that made mojigangas.

3.- Dance of the eagle. The eagle is one of the symbols that represent Christ. The Dance of the Eagle was an important part of the parade.

4.- Guild I. After the monsters and matachines the different guilds were placed. In the old Corpus, one of the first to parade was that of the wool or hatters with their mayor and his banner of San Severo.

5.- Bow dance. Some dances with origin in Corpus have survived until our days, such as those of arches that are danced in Tegueste and Guamasa.

6.- Guild II. Formerly the shoemakers' guild went out with their patrons San Crisp and San Crispiano, in whose banner luc went to the kickstand, the blade and the brucete.

7.-Sword dance. This dance was very popular in Fuerteventura. The number of dancers used to be between 5 and 8. On one occasion there are three male and three female members.

8.- Dance of the P ...

The Corpus Christi is the oldest celebration of the Canary Islands, although its current conception is the product of profound changes operated throughout the centuries. The arches and carpets of flowers, sand and salt are a later addition to a celebration that initially contains other ritual elements. The recovery of this old Corpus de La Laguna, is a cultural proposal and complement to its religious celebration, in the idea of recovering part of the ethnographic history of the city of La Laguna.

Its celebration is held on Thursday of Corpus Christi.

Route: Dr. Olivera Square, Calle de Herradores, Tabares de Cala Street, Calle de la Carrera, Plaza de la Concepci n