Aranda de Duero (Burgos) (EFE)
The leading role this year has fallen to Valentina Arranz, a five-year-old from Arandina, a student at the Simón de Colonia school in the riverside capital, who has been chosen by the Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia-Virgen de las Candelas Brotherhood, organizer of the event, to act as the angel who removes the mourning veil from the Virgin and announces that Jesus has risen.
“When the balloon opens I have to release the doves, take off my crown, remove the veil from the Virgin and kick all the time until they lower me to the ground.” Almost like one of the litanies that have been so present in religious services throughout Holy Week, Valentina repeated what she had to do minutes before ‘la Bajada’ began.
Emotion and expectation among the Arandinos
And just as it has done, following the ritual that has been performed for centuries in the Plaza de Santa María, in front of the spectacular façade -altarpiece, an example of Elizabethan Gothic, of the main Arandino temple-, in one of the acts with the greatest influx of public concentrates and awakens more emotions.
With a few minutes of delay around noon, something unusual in this appointment in which, by the way, the sun always shines, the hatch of the box that represents the sky has opened, revealing the blue and white balloon inside which Valentina has hidden.
In the center of the square, the image of the Virgen de las Candelas covered by the black cloak had been waiting for a few moments. In front of her, the Risen One of the Brotherhood of the Resurrection of Christ, the first thing that Mary will see when the girl-angel removes her mourning veil.
It took a few seconds for the balloon, suspended by ropes, to travel the ten meters that separates it from the Marian image and, when it was placed on top of it, the receptacle opened, showing Valentina, dressed all in white , appearing with a shower of confetti.
Since then, as usual, everything has happened according to plan. The angel has descended, has removed the black veil and has gone up and down several times, thanks to the stage set up for the occasion before, after being placed on the ground, it has taken its place under the Virgin’s litter to participate in the procession.
Pigeons: the anecdote
The anecdote, this year, has come from the two white doves that accompanied Valentina on her particular balloon trip. Instead of flying away, as usually happens, on this occasion they have preferred to remain contemplating what was happening from the privileged position that the interior of the balloon has given them.
Something that could have been influenced by the advice that the angel of 2023 received from her sister Jimena, who assumed that same role at the 2016 ceremony. “She told me to hold the pigeons very tight,” Valentina acknowledged before play their leading role.
Halfway between a liturgical ceremony and a theatrical performance, the Bajada del Ángel has been declared a Festival of Regional Tourist Interest. Together with Tudela (Navarra) and Peñafiel (Valladolid) it is one of the few Spanish towns that continue to celebrate this curious ritual on Easter Sunday.EFE
