The story of Our Lady of The Candelaria begins on the island of Tenerife.
Even before the Spanish conquest of the Canary Islands, the Guanches found a statue of a beautiful woman on the ocean. It became their shrine. The Spanish conquistadors, having broken the resistance of the Guanches, decided that the shrine of the Guanches was the statue of Our Lady, albeit black.
In the town of Candelaria, the Spaniards built a chapel for the statue, which stood here for many years — until a storm carried the chapel out to sea along with the statue. Since by that time pilgrimages had become a tradition, they made a copy of the statue and built a temple for it. Along the promenade next to the temple rise 9 bronze statues of Guanche leaders who ruled Tenerife before the Spanish conquest.
Temples of the Madonna from Candelaria can be seen in many cities around the world, for example, in the Brazilian Rio de Janeiro.
On this day, the Mamacha Candelaria religious festival begins in the mountains of Peru at an altitude of four thousand meters above sea level. Early in the morning, priests, believers and novices leave the city of Puno. At the head of the procession sits the Virgin of Candelaria in her cart, and dancers in bright costumes and horned masks wriggle to the sounds of a pipe.
At the end of the performance, the artists go to the cemetery to communicate with the souls of deceased relatives, and the next day they dance again in honor of the earth goddess, the spirit of water and the owner of the air.
The main celebrations in honor of Our Lady of Candelaria take place on August 15th.