The ship ‘Nuevo Jomar’, recently incorporated into the municipality’s fishermen’s brotherhood, was in charge of embarking this year the image of the patron saint on her tour of the Mar Menor
San Pedro del Pinatar celebrated this Saturday one of the most deeply rooted and traditional festivities, a pilgrimage by land and sea in honor of the Virgen del Carmen, in which fishermen and faithful, accompanied by thousands of neighbors and visitors, transferred her image from San Pedro del Pinatar to Lo Pagán.
The festivity, whose official celebration dates back 130 years, began at 7:00 a.m. with a reveille through the streets of San Pedro del Pinatar and, later, of Lo Pagán, followed an hour later by the traditional mass in the Plaza de la Constitución, officiated by the Bishop of the Diocese of Cartagena, Juan Manuel Lorca Planes.
Despite the intense heat, thousands of people took part in the pilgrimage that left at 9:00 a.m. from the San Pedro Apóstol church to the port of Lo Pagán, making stops at the altars that neighbors and fishermen erected as the Virgin passed by and in which the ‘Salve marinera’ was sung.
The Minister of the Environment and Fisheries, Antonio Luengo; the mayor of San Pedro del Pinatar, Visitación Martínez; and the patron saint of the Fishermen’s Guild, José Blaya, were in charge of opening the land procession together with other civil and military positions. The traditional ‘tronaera’, a deafening firecracker announcing the entrance of the Virgin into the Port of Lo Pagán, brought this tour to an end.
The ship ‘Nuevo Jomar’, by Joaquín Camarrojas, recently incorporated into the San Pedro Fishermen’s Guild, was in charge of embarking the image of the patron saint this year on its tour of the Mar Menor.
The Virgin was escorted by hundreds of fishing and pleasure boats, decorated for the occasion and packed with faithful who, after a prayer, threw carnations into the water in memory of the deceased men of the sea.
After the offering, the Eagle Patrol of the General Air Academy joined the celebration with its spectacular acrobatic flights over the ‘Estrella de los Mares’. After landing, the Fish Market hosted a mass presided over by the image of the Virgin, before being transferred to the church of Nuestra Señora del Carmen in Lo Pagán.
The day will end this morning with the return procession from the parish of Lo Pagán to San Pedro del Pinatar, starting at midnight.
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