Our Lady of Candelaria

Our Lady of Candelaria honors Mary at the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, when Simeon proclaimed the Child the light of the nations. She is usually shown holding the Infant Jesus in one arm and a candle in the other hand.

The devotion took its best-known form in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, where, according to tradition, two Guanche shepherds found a statue of the Virgin on the shore around 1400, before the islands were evangelized. Her shrine at Candelaria became the spiritual heart of the Canaries, and she was named their patroness. Canarian settlers and Spanish missionaries carried the devotion across the Atlantic, and today the Virgen de la Candelaria is venerated in Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, where she is closely linked to Our Lady of Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. In 2011 she was declared patroness of the Canary Islands' maritime emergency services.

In Puno, Peru, the Fiesta de la Virgen de la Candelaria fills the first half of February with processions and thousands of costumed dancers; UNESCO recognized it as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2014. In Tlacotalpan, Veracruz, her image travels down the Papaloapan River by boat.

In the Canary Islands, pilgrims walk to the Basilica of Candelaria in Tenerife on February 2 and again on August 15. Across Mexico the day ends with tamales shared among family and friends.