Forget Madonna, disregard Naomi Campbell, the female figures that excite the most adoration from the Spanish are the virgin icons of their faith. One such is the Virgen del Carmen. She has been adopted as their patron by sailors and fishermen in towns and villages all along the Andalucian coast, and on the 16th July each year her much revered statue is borne from the local church to be paraded through the streets and down to the sea. At this point the nature of the homage may vary: in many towns she may be taken for a trip around the bay on a heavily-garlanded boat accompanied by a flotilla of fishing vessels, whilst in Los Boliches she is merely walked by her 80 plus bearers into the foaming tide - no mean feat as the throne is said to weigh enough to stop a train. In the city of Malaga parades take place on the Sunday following July 16th and the local scuba club pays homage to the Virgen by diving to an effigy of her placed on the seabed!

The parades of the Virgen del Carmen are not like the solemn processions that take place at Easter; the mood is very much one of celebration. Typically, each parade will be accompanied by a brass band playing upbeat music and cries of “long live the Virgen del Carmen” ring out during her progress to the sea. Many parades culminate in a lavish firework display, the end of which signals the start of a night of drinking and dancing. This is a tradition that embraces rather than competes with the commercial requirements of tourism. Visitors are encouraged to enjoy the spectacle of the parades and to join in with the festivities.

The origins of the festival are to be found at Mount Carmel, a coastal mountain range in the north of Israel overlooking the Mediterranean and with the city of Haifa on its western promontory. The name comes from the Hebrew “Karem El”, the “Vineyards of God”. The prophet Elijah was said to have dwelt in a cave at Mount Carmel and here it was that the important Catholic religious order, the Carmelites, was founded in the 12th century. The order instituted the feast between 1376 and 1386 when its name and constitution received approbation from Pope Honorius III. The date of 16th July was assigned in recognition of the day in 1251 when, according to Carmelite tradition, a scapular (religious badge) was given by the Blessed Virgin to St Simon Stock, leader of an oppressed Carmelite order in Cambridge, England who had appealed to her for help.

The festival is celebrated in these locations:

Benalmadena
Estepona
Fuengirola – Los Boliches
Malaga – El Palo, La Cala, and Pedregalejo
Marbella
Nerja
Rincon de la Victoria
Torre del Mar
Torremolinos