Prayers for the Holy - 22.01.2010

Last Monday saw the traditional festival of San Sebastian, attended by nearly 20,000 people from both the area and the rest of the island.

Both young and old, tourists and travellers, enjoyed a beautiful sunny day where they mingled the sacred with the profane unashamedly in perfect communion.

 

 

In La Caleta the White Chapel, Adeje, became the focus for many worshippers.

 

 

From early morning devotees who were accompanied by a hundred animals, among which more than 50 horses, oxen, goats, dogs and donkeys which provided a picture worthy of wonder, especially horses when they received their purifying bath of seawater, that their ancestors had to do with healing and fertility in a pagan rite more sacred pre-Hispanic, until it was converted and used by Christianity with the Gothic invasion.

 

 

The arrival of the horses of the sea was undoubtedly the most anticipated moment and followed by thousands who gathered hours before, to get the best sites from which to watch the spectacle of horses in the water.

 

 

And although some horses threw their riders, they demonstrated their ability to remount and ride out of the water, in a display of dominance.

 

 

The event, preceded by the Eucharist with traditional ringing of bells at the end, was then followed with the procession to the beach of La Enramada.