Although the Catholic Church commemorates Candlemas on 2nd February, it is on 15 August in the town of Candelaria that cultural traditions of Guanches and Spanish conquistadors become once again intermingled. It is the Spanish holiday of Our Lady, and it was the Guanche Festival of Be asmen , the harvest. The day before, trucks and buses arrive to the town of Candelaria decorated with flowers and palm branches.
People spend the night in the open air, dances and songs resounding everywhere.
It is another typical example, full of symbolism, of the presence of Guanche roots in the present-day Canarian culture and society. As it has been said, Tenerife was the last island to be conquered by the Castilians. Alonso Fern ndez de Lugo arrives from Gran Canaria and lands at A aza Beach, in the boundary between the Menceydoms of Anaga and G imar. He arrives with Spanish troops, but also with a considerable number of natives of Gran Canaria who have been christianized. Their island has been part of the Kingdom of Castile for the last 20 years.