LA CANDILEJA
They say that The Candileja is a burning ball of
three torches, with arms like red tentacles, which produces noise of
broken vases. Pursue drunks, cheaters, irresponsible and fearful parents.
They also say that it scares travelers who make a journey late at night. Grandparents and great-great-grandparents, in homes of
large families, tell this legend over and over again to teach their children
and grandchildren that what might happen to them if they dare to misbehave.
According to what they say, many years ago there
was an old woman who had two grandchildren whom she spoiled too much,
tolerating even the strangest occurrences, rudeness and wildness. The bad
behaviors of the grandchildren came to require the old woman to play the role
of a horse to saddle and then mount it between the two; the grandmother agreed
to the happiness of her two grandchildren, who walked throughout the house as
on the meekest horse.
When the old woman died, San Pedro scolded her for
the lack of rigidity in the education of her two grandchildren and condemned
her to purge her sorrows in this world between three candle flares that mean:
the body of the old woman and those of her two grandchildren .
BY CARLOS GUERRA and
MARÍA CAMILA MONTES,
Step 10
