Some believe there are festivities that bring so much fun they should have a place in a museum, to be preserved for centuries to come. Saved for posterity, even when many people will continue celebrating them.
Well, this has seen the light in Agaete, in the north of Gran Canaria, where the Museo de la Rama (Brunch Museum) was recently opened. A museum wholly devoted to a festivity, a popular celebration that keeps breaking laughter records summer after summer. Laughter that starts in the first days of August, when the quiet town of Agaete becomes all excited with the preparations of the Fiesta de la Rama, the Branch Festivity.
The Branch Festivity marks the key moment in Our Lady of the Snows celebrations, an event of true symbolic significance to all Grancanarians. Declared of National Tourist Interest in 1972, it is an ancient ritual in which a crowd of people dance their way from El Pinar de Tamadaba towards the sea, waving pine tree branches to the rhythm of lively music and praying for rain.
The Museo de la Rama was designed to let visitors know the true meaning of the celebration and show them the different elements that make up one of the islands’ most colourful festivities: the street decorations, historical images of old celebrations, and much more.
Should you decide to visit the quiet sea town of Agaete on your next trip to Gran Canaria, do stop by at the museum. The papagüevos now living in its halls will appreciate it, for they always enjoy a little conversation. You will find them asleep, waiting for you to wake them for the next dance. Don’t you now who the papagüevos are? We’ll let you know at the new Museo de la Rama.
The Museo de la Rama is located on Párroco Alonso Luján 5, Agaete.
