The naturalistic oasis of Pont Gau,in Camargue,that auberge a lot of flamingos rosas,auberge also the procession of Santa Sara la Nera.During this procession,the people,bailing and chanting,go to the Place de Gitans and fill up the roads in a long procession till the shore.The “Gardiens”,chevalier that guide on horseback the procession and the”Arlesiannes”,the gytanes that dance in cercle,are two of typical figure of this parade.This procession terminate with the entrance of the people in the sea and with the purification of the statue,that in this way liberate all the negative energy cumulating during the year.

It is taken in Camargue,in the south of France,and it’s important because this pilgrimage is one of the more vibrantes and full of symbolism in Europe:the romeria gitana in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer combine tradition,spiritualism and culture,reuning a lot of people of the gytanes communities that arrive from everywhere to pay tribute to Santa Sara,protector of the gytanes.

But,correlating with this colored and bailing procession of Santa Sara la Nera,it exist in Aracena,another “romeiria de los gitanos”,in which the saturday before the descense of the two pastors from the hills untill the casco viejo,a neighborhood of Aracena,the kids give flower to the imagen of the Virgen.The Sunday of the following week,the two pastors come back to the hills, a traves del “Camino del rebollar”.

Another “romeria de los gitanos”is Santa Agueda,a christian women of Catania that bornt in Catania,in 230 a.c. and that died as martyr in 251 a.c.,date in which every year we celebrate her festivity.She protect women from maladies and she is also the protector of the iron foundry.Otros poderes that we can attribuites to her are to protect people against malos espiritus and to develop in the country the production of grains.It told the leyend that she was betrayed by two frailes,Santiago and San Vincente and comdenend to death.

This last two procession(and their histories that we narrated here)are very similar to the one of Santa Sara la Nera,taken in Camargue the south of France,at the beginning of june.