The Festivity of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, also called Candelaria, Candlemas, Feast of the Candles or Feast of the Light, is a popular Catholic feast in honour of the Virgin of Candelaria, a Marian devotion deeply rooted in Spain since the beginning of the 10th century.

Astronomically, it coincides with the extension of daylight hours or lengthening of the day in the Northern hemisphere. Initially, the festival of Candlemas or the Feast of Light originated in the East under the name of El Encuentro (the Encounter), and later spread to the West in the 6th century, being celebrated in Rome with a penitential character. According to other researchers, however, the festival originated in ancient Rome, where the procession of the candles was part of the Lupercalia festival.

In Andalusia, the festive events vary in each town or city. Inland they are usually centred on one or several bonfires, with dancing, food and drink around them.

Seville

Specially noteworthy are the celebrations in towns of the southern Sierra of Seville such as Estepa, Gilena and especially Pedrera and Casariche, where more than 500 bonfires are lit, with great participation by both locals and visitors.

Jaén

In Jódar, in the province of Jaén, this festival is known as the Virgen de las Roscas (doughnuts), and its origins date back to the 17th century. On this day, children carry bunches of rosemary branches to the Church of La Asunción, from which colourful roscas hang tied with coloured ribbons. The girls carry baskets with bunches of rosemary and the roscas waiting to be blessed by the priest.

Cordoba

This festivity is also celebrated in Priego de Córdoba where, in addition to lighting the bonfires in the squares, it is traditional to light them in the schools, where the children dance around it. In Adamuz, also in the province of Córdoba, this festivity is celebrated all night long around numerous bonfires made of rosemary, over which the young people of the town jump. This is the reason why people from Adamuz are known as culiquemaos (“burnt buttocks”).

In the region of Los Pedroches, the Fiesta de las Candelas in Dos Torres, declared a Festivity of Tourist Interest in Andalusia, attracts more than 5,000 people a year. The central element of the celebration is the lighting of the traditional bonfire in the Plaza de la Villa, around which the neighbours gather for an evening of conviviality, fun and eating sardines and pork products, and in Nueva Carteya, it is customary to make the candles with the remains of the olive trees that are cut down after harvesting the fruit.

Granada

In Polícar (Granada), on the eve of La Candelaria, the traditional chiscos (bonfires) are made. It consists of going to the countryside to collect firewood to make lumbres or chiscos in different parts of the village in the evening.

Malaga

The Virgin de la Candelaria and Saint Blas are honoured with devotion and faith. Proof of this can be found in the small village of Colmenar, where the images of the two saints are carried out in procession for more than ten hours. The faithful can triple the population of the village on this day.

 

Period / Occurrence:

The feast is celebrated, according to the Catholic Saints’ Calendar, on 2nd February in memory of the biblical passage of the Presentation of the Holy Child in the Temple of Jerusalem (Lk 2:22-39) and the purification of the Virgin Mary after childbirth, to fulfil the prescription of the Old Testament Law.

Vecinos alrededor de la candela. Dos Torres (Córdoba). Photo: Felipe García Leyva. © Instituto Andaluz del Patrimonio Histórico

IAPH image under the conditions established under license cc-by 3.0 de Creative Common. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/

Encendiendo la Hoguera. Alhama de Granada. Photo: Mª del Rosario Ortiz Amores. © Instituto Andaluz del Patrimonio Histórico

IAPH image under the conditions established under license cc-by 3.0 de Creative Common. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/

Quemando la Candela. Castro del Río (Córdoba). Photo: Marc Ballester i Torrent. © Instituto Andaluz del Patrimonio Histórico

IAPH image under the conditions established under license cc-by 3.0 de Creative Common. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/

Candela. El Ronquillo (Sevilla). Photo: Alessandra Olivi. © Instituto Andaluz del Patrimonio Histórico

IAPH image under the conditions established under license cc-by 3.0 de Creative Common. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/

Dos Torres. (2019). Spot Fiesta de la Candelaria Dos Torres. [Video File].

Reference:
Instituto Andaluz del Patrimonio Histórico. Mª del Rosario ORTIZ AMORES, Atlas del Patrimonio Inmaterial de Andalucía. Fase 2. Zona 5. Candelaria, 2010.