Las Burras de Güímar – a Witches’ Sabbath in Güímar

[Janet]

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One particularly evocative event in the whole Carnaval season takes place in Güímar, where a modern twist on an old local legend is enacted on the day the sardine is buried. This year, that's Friday, 10 March, and instead of the traditional drag-widows, wailing in black, Las Burras de Güímar are the witches who disguised themselves as donkey mares (burras) to infiltrate the public to carry out acts of black magic in honour of their Lord, the Devil himself.

This year there has been some controversy over the carnival poster competition because the likely winner showed a woman on all fours before her master, the Devil. That was indeed the poster chosen for the event, but it has been "censored for publication" by the association itself – but only once everyone had actually seen the original (below)!

The whole thing begins around 9pm with what seems to be a typical Entierra de la Sardina, but soon becomes something far more pagan, bestial, and mystical, as the parade leaves the plaza de San Pedro Arriba and gradually turns into a Witches' Sabbath! It's not a sardine that gets burnt ... . If you want to see something really quite different, this is the place to be on Friday, 10 March, for Las Burras de Güímar!

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