Rancho de Pascua

At the geo-coordinates you find a statue made of bronze which was erected to honour an ethnic music group which carry on an unique tradition of the town Teguise.

Some hundreds of years ago the rite of the "Ranchos de Animas" came from the spanish continent to the canary islands. Originally from November until February they moved from door to door to collect money and prayed for the salvation of decendents while singing and dancing. Over the years and years the Ranchos de Animas were doing this rite only during christmas time and henceforth they were called "Ranchos de Pascuas". 

Nowadays in the night of the 24. December you can experience beside the christmas prays a noisy spectacle in the church "Nuestra Senora de Guadelupe" and on the square in front of the church making it an unique and uncommonly mixture of old canary and christian traditions. During the "Rancho de Pascua" the group chant the praises to the birth of Jesus Christ, to Mary and to Joseph. The most common played instrument are the tambourines to accompany the praises. The christmas eve is celebrated here more cheerful than you commonly know it. Here you can watch a youtube video of a "Rancho de Pascua": external link

Beside the statue there is a plate which tells you about the history and specialties of this tradition in spanish and english language. On this plate you find two year dates. The password to log this cache: calculate the difference of the both year dates. 

One remark: each Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. there is held the famous Teguise market which is visited by many tourists. It can be very crowded here and the statue could be hardly recognized. I recommend to visit Teguise not during market times to enjoy the charm of the Lanzarote's oldest town. You can get to Teguise also by public transport from town Arrecife and Costa Teguise.

Have fun while visiting Teguise and the virtual cache.