THE ROMERIA DE EL ROCIO;THE PENTECOST PILGRIMAGE IN ANDALUCIA

 THE ROMERIA DE EL ROCIO

PENTECOST PILGRIMAGE IN ANDALUCIA



A pilgrimage to the Hermitage of El Rocio Almonte, in Andalucia in honour of Our Lady of the Dew starts on the second day of Pentecost, finishing on Whitsunday. Our Lady of the Dew has been venerated there at least since the 13th century, although the current ornamentation of the statue dates from 1653. The pilgrims come on horseback and in gaily decorated wagons and the pilgrimage itself becomes a colourful and noisy celebration. On Pentecost Monday the Blessed Virgin is brought from the church and the hermandades, (brotherhoods) carry the statue - the statue is passed from one brotherhood to another.



The Hermitage at the site dates from the late 13th century or early 14th century. The statue is theological – Our Lady is looking down at the Christ child – leading us to Christ. The statue is very early but it is dressed in later dressing (16th or 17th century).
A site called Spanish Fiestas (from which some of the images are taken describes the pilgrimage as follows:
"The procession lasts until the evening and is accompanied by masses of followers chanting, clapping and beating drums and the playing of tambourines, flutes and guitars. The whole thing is carried out to the accompaniment of fire crackers and crowds shouting out ‘Viva la Reina de la Marisima’ – ‘Long live the queen of the marshland’. The climax of the whole festival comes in the early hours of the Monday morning when the actual statue of the virgin is brought from the church and paraded throughout the town. Its frenetic passing through the hands of all the brotherhoods makes one wonder how it has survived for so long.



There is much of the atmosphere of the famous Seville festivals about the Rocío pilgrimage but with a kind of Spanish Glastonbury feel to it. Many city dwellers will camp out in the fields of the surrounding Doñana National Park and there will be traditional singing and dancing going on for hours on end. You will be able to smell fried peppers, prawns and sherry and witness the first-time Rocieros being unofficially baptized."(1)
(1) Spanish Fiestas, Discover the Real Spain; Photographs by Juan Perez-Campanero.

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