Huelva, (EFE) , which is maintained by the youth of the town over the years.
The mayor of the municipality, José Antonio Ramos, has told EFE that it is a “healthy and fun” diversion that the owners of the animals have in good humor, to indicate that the “thefts” take place at some undetermined moment in time. the week, when the young people go to the stables where the animals are and take them away.
Ramos has specified that he himself has a donkey that disappeared “on Monday or Tuesday”, since when he went to the block it was not there, and possibly the “thieves” came at dawn to take it away and have it hidden somewhere. There it is cared for and fed “as if its own owners had it, since the animals do not suffer any harm during this celebration.”
Lost tradition in the 40s
Currently, in Santa Ana la Real there are seven donkeys of different ages left, and, as tradition states, “the funniest thing is to steal the donkey from the people who are watching it all day because they don’t like this custom very much”, so who take advantage of an oversight or early morning to get hold of the animal.
This tradition was lost in the forties and was recovered from the seventies, “when stealing a donkey, then there were ten, and now there is not a free donkey left in the town”, because no matter how many precautions one takes, in the end they always end up all stolen.
A week before the release of the animals, the youngsters have already stolen and hidden them in a place known only to them. There they are fed, painted and disguised with a hat and flowers, in addition to making a rag Judas, made by the children of Santa Ana la Real, which will later be burned on Easter Sunday.
Once the burning of Judas is over, each donkey returns to its stable and all the inhabitants of the Huelva town move to a field on the outskirts of the municipality where they share the traditional Easter bun, a bagel with a hard-boiled egg. EFE