Photo Essay from Copiap, Chile: Procession for la Virgen de la Candelaria

La Virgen de la Candelaria is a tiny picture found in a 1700s. In Copiap, Chile, a Church or Sanctuary of a Virgin has been going in a little form or an additional given 1800. Seen as a protector of miners, any February, work stops in a mines whilst local miners come down to give thanks to a Virgin for her insurance as well as thousands accumulate from miles around to pay reverence in ceremony as well as by eremite dance. When a miners were found, a picture of La Virgen de la Candelaria was stationed during Campamento Esperanza (or Camp Hope, as a temporary home of a families as well as desired ones of a miners was called as they waited a long months for their rescue) in a comedor (or dining area). The Thursday after any as well as each miner was rescued, a ceremony took place during a camp with a rescued men in attendance, as well as a Virgin was brought down to a cathedral for a special mass in thanks for her protection. Following a mass, there was a way which upheld a hospital, where dual of a miners were still under observation, as well as in conclusion returned La Virgen de la Candelaria to her place in her church.

1.Don Juan Rojas Gomez has been a part of of La Iglesia de la Candelaria given infancy. He says he would do anything for a Virgin. Like his relatives before him as well as his dual grown children as well as dual grandchildren, faith in La Virgen de la Candelaria is an integral part of his life.

A retired director for a El Salvador cave up north, he (and Jaime Cabaas Villacorto, not pictured) are charged with caring for a picture of a Virgin during transport. we found them this afternoon putting a finishing touches upon a wreath of flowering plants as they prepared to go to a cave as well as take her from her place of burial for a protected! lapse o f a miners in Campamento Esperanza.

2.Painted upon an exterior wall of a church complex, this is a unequivocally short version of a story of La Virgen de la Candelaria. It says:

The Story of a Find On a February night in 1780, proprietor of a Indian encampment of San Fernando, Mariano Caro Inca, was surprised by a aroused charge between a salt flats of Maricunga. When he brought his animals down to find retreat from a storm, he sought retreat in a cave, where by a light of his lanterns, he saw a picture of a virgin. In a light of a following day, she was recognized as The Virgin of a Candelaria. It was a dawn of February 2nd, a day of Our Lady of a Candelaria.

3. Inside a church, whilst a original picture of a Virgin has been placed nearby a miners to help with their protected lapse to a surface, a Virgen Grande or big Virgin stays in place.

4.Men from a Religious Society of Our Lady of a Candelaria accumulate outward a a cathedral before mass to chaperon her back to her home.

5. A part of of Bailes Tinkus Sumi Wayu looks over a entertainment crowd. Tinkus is ! an ancie nt Incan convention thats still active as well as vibrant today, originally meant to ask La Pacha Mama for fruitful stand growth.

6.Dancers of Los Bailes Chinos, or a Chinese Dances. This organisation is ready to go unequivocally ornately, with bright colors as well as sequins as well as a smallest between them appear to be no more than five years old. Here, a little of a members wait outward a cathedral for a way to begin.

7.As it was explained to me by a cabinet part of of a church, most of these dancers accumulate (Los Bailes Chinos, included) to rejoice in a lapse of a Virgin. Only one organisation in a way are members of a Church of a Candelaria. Here, dual of a masculine dancers wait for a way to start.

8.A photographer takes a shot of one of a smallest dancers.

9.By a time a mass unequivocally gets going, a cathedral is stuffed to a gills with congregants.

10.Nuns watch a mass from theatre left. The eremite figure wears a mining steel sheet as well as binds a lantern.

11.La Virgen de la Candelaria is ! upon a m ove, graphic here only outward a cathedral doors with attendants from her church temperament torches.

12. Here, outward a cathedral doors, those participating in a way accumulate to listen to a difference of a cathedrals priest, who once again thanks a Virgin for a miners protected lapse upon top of ground. A church part of is fitted with a harness to carry a speakers so a songs as well as difference of a priests can be listened by those a way passes.

View a way as well as a church ceremony upon a subsequent page.