María Ruiz I Granada, (EFE) festival that increases the number of crosses and bars throughout the city.
The flamenco singer Esther Crisol has been commissioned this afternoon to give the starting signal to some crosses that premiere the local festival of May 3 and offer double the fun, a proposal with which the Granada City Council wants to recover the splendor of this centuries-old tradition.
Crisol has drawn a journey through his emotional imagination in a proclamation with which he has presented the smells and colors of neighborhood crosses, family members, shawls and red carnations.
The mayor of Granada, Francisco Cuenca (PSOE), has applauded the story of the town crier and has vindicated those copper crosses and Granada identity that were lived as a family, in small squares and schoolyards.
Crosses of Granada that are worth double
And there, in small squares, patios and streets, fifty crosses have been planted again this year, monuments scattered throughout a city that sounds like folklore and has presented an overcast sky that has added a nostalgic tone to the day.
Granada signs this Tuesday the first of its two days of fiesta, a proposal full of pots and inlays, tapas and La Reja ringing in almost any corner, spaces decorated with lanterns and shawls that extend through each neighborhood to defeat the “buts” of the Day of the Cross.
These crosses that shine in hospitals or shop windows, in bars and neighborhood patios, vindicate a tradition that wants to once again be a symbol of Granada and a tourist boost in this Andalusian capital and that this 2023 they are worth twice as much.
Traditional red has prevailed in this festival with a flavor of folklore that looks decked out with ceramic pots and the irreplaceable but, that apple with a pair of scissors stuck in it that warns with a bit of malafollá from Granada that criticism is not allowed.
The Day of the Cross seeks the tradition of a festival that has its origins at the beginning of the 20th century in the Albaicín and Realejo, where young people built small altars around a cross.
The City Council has also awarded its prizes in the categories of streets and squares, shop windows and schools, a list led by the San Ildefonso Neighborhood Association in the category of streets and squares.
Give more life to tradition
In the Patios modality, the Archconfraternity of María Auxiliadora Cultural Association has prevailed and in the school section the Regina Mundi school has won.
To make this tradition grow and sow a lot of future, the City Council has published a coloring book that promotes the traditional festivals of this capital, a proposal illustrated by the cartoonist Eduardo Moreia.
The City Council will distribute more than a thousand paper notebooks to enhance the festival, a proposal that includes personalities from Granada such as Chorrojumo, the Dragon of Tarasca or ‘the but and the scissors’ that usually adorn the Crosses.
He will also plant this Wednesday a cross designed to raise awareness about the importance of recycling to give more life to the tradition.
Granada offers a tour of its fifty crosses, proposals among which 21 stood out with the installation of bars and a cultural program that includes a performance by the Municipal Band of Granada accompanied by singer Iván Centenillo.
To avoid large bottles and guarantee security, the city has a special device that will focus on areas of special influx such as the Albaicín, Plaza Nueva, Campo del Príncipe or Plaza de la Universidad, an operation to seek two days of partying without “ buts”. EFE