Tenerife SouTh -   EDITION 561 :: 29/03/2008 - 12/04/2008 :: ISLAND CONNECTIONS

 

Wedding on Guaza mountain

“I do” in Guanche
If you were driving along the motorway by the Guaza mountain on Sunday March 16th you might have noticed some unusual goings on, with figures in goats skins by the wall bearing the colours of the Canarian flag (white, blue and yellow) – a Guanche wedding was in progress. Wanse Taghit and Wanse eggunay wed in Guanche style on the mountain in a legitimate ceremony (they also registered the marriage through the normal civil channels) according to the traditional aborigine rituals as detailed by archaeologists and linguists who have made a study of Tenerife ’s early inhabitants. in front of friends and family members the a pair, members of the Pueblo Guanche church, were married by priestess Acerina Ayt Anaga, in the second marriage of its kind in recent time. During the ceremony the couple ate a meal of gofio (toasted cereals) with milk and honey from a ‘ganigo’, a Guanche wedding cup, (which they will keep as symbol of their life together) and family members the and in a sacred fire burnt salt and aromatic plants, as their foreheads were anointed with “the salt of life”. The Guanches were the first known inhabitants of  the Canary islands , with their presence on the islands dating from 500 BC or earlier.