In the province of Guadalajara, the traditional marine procession in honor of the Virgin of Carmen took place in Pareja... (Photo Surf3)

On Saturday, July 20, 2024, since it was the 16th of July, the feast of the Virgin of Carmen on a working day, it was decided to postpone the marine procession until Saturday.

At seven in the afternoon, about a hundred boats, most of them motor, and many of them gilded with flowers and flags, spread the waters of the Sea of Castilla for about an hour to concentrate on the island of the Rhino and to dedicate a marine salve to the Virgin of Carmen.

The place chosen for the concentration of the ships was that of other years, i.e. a small inlet located to the north of the known "corner of the rhino." After the Salve Marinera, the Spanish national anthem rang.

This striking naval Romeria, has its beginnings in Entrepeñas back in the 1970s of the last century and since then is a tradition very rooted in the urbanization Las Anclas, in the municipal term of Pareja in the region of La Alcarria de Guadalajara and to which many sympathizers from other urbanizations and nearby localities come.

In addition to mainly asking the Virgin of Carmen for protection in navigation, there were many attendees who individually took advantage of the day of the marine procession to ask the Virgin of Carmen for their protection in other pleas.

The organizing club of this marine procession was the Club Náutico Castilla, which had the collaboration of the municipality of Pareja and various nautical companies of the vicinity.

The procession begins on the ground, bearing the image of the Virgin of Carmen, from the hermitage that bears its name to the shore of the reservoir and placed at the bow of one of the ships of the organization. On that ship, the image of the Virgin of Carmen was accompanied at all times by the parish priest of the town.

The procession consisted of a tour of the waters of the reservoir of Entrepeñas in which the image of the Virgin is followed by different boats of recreational use and in which the neighbors and summers of the different urbanizations and localities that border the also known as Mar de Castilla were embarked.

After the end of this marine procession, a mass took place in the hermitage of the Virgin of Carmen located in the urbanization of Las Anclas... as a brooch to this festive marine day, a popular snack was held at the very headquarters of the Nautico Castilla Club.