THE DAY OF THE HOLY CROSS

7. EXALTATION OF THE CROSS Leaving behind that building we find the road of El Medio de Arriba which still preserves a large amount of its old houses. This road, besides the neighboring road of El Sol are famous because of the celebrations on the 3rd of May upon the Cross devotion, the feasts which are well known in the municipality and that stand out above all in the town nucleus of La Cruz Santa.

Nowad ays, Los Realejos has all over the municipality about three hundreds of that Christian symbol, which are present at chapels, temples, private houses, in the heads of streets, rocks and cliffs in the sea and in the forest, roads of service and royal roads, viewpoints or simply stuck in the ground, as identity signs of the Village.

The flower branches are an essential part of the celebration on the special 3rd of May. Chapels, hermitages and crosses on the walls, irrespective of their location, wake up in their best dresses.

The great pyrotechnic exhibition takes place after evening, with a “pique”(competition) between the two roads and is regarded as one of the greatest and most important in Europe, assembling for about three hours thousands of visitors, who follow that show from the roads, borders, squares and other corners of the municipality. Some Scholars point out that this “pique” comes from 1770 and the existence of two well distinguished social classes: the owners of the lands where El Medio road passes, and the owners of the adjoining properties and the poor peasants of El Sol road. In the middle of El Medio de Arriba road, we find the crossroad that leads to El Lance and Icod el Alto. This is the legendary place where Mencey Bentor jumped off the cliff to avoid being prisoner of the Spanish at the end of the conquest of Tenerife. Therefore, there is a sculpture devoted to him placed in the viewpoint of El Lance, where we can also enjoy a splendid overall view of the Orotava Valley. Coming back to the crossroad, in the road called Travesia El Pino, we find a couple of barbuzano and centenarian pine trees which show their magnificence to anyone who goes along.