The flight from San Diego, an almost century-old tradition - La Provincia

Despite the evolution of the years there are traditions that do not fall into oblivion and one of them is the escape from San Diego, a student tradition that only takes place in Canary Islands. A custom close to turning a century.

This tradition is born concretely in The lagoon in 1919. In the Canary Islands Institute of the aforementioned locality of Tenerife, a teacher used to perform an examination at this time and one year this reason prevented attending the pilgrimage in San Diego to the students, who fed up, decided to escape and thus establish a custom that is repeated since then, annually, and that consists in approaching the hermitage to count the buttons of the statue of Juan de Ayala, founder of the convent of San Diego.

All this with the support of the director of the Canary Islands Institute, Adolfo Cabrera Pinto, from which he takes his name today. Cabrera Pinto tried to get the teacher to change the exam date but, seeing his refusal, he supported the young people to escape.

Since he made that feat for the studentsEach year, young people skipped classes to take an offering of pumpkins to San Diego, as a symbol of the suspense, and exchange them for passes, and took advantage of the day to stay at the neighborhood dances, since during those days they were the festivities.

Little by little this tradition was transformed and imported to other points of the Islands, taking place in schools, colleges and universities. The students continued to run away from class - either one day or the whole week - and the pumpkin offering and the count of the buttons were exchanged for the chops on the mountain as a symbol of camaraderie and conviviality at the start of the academic year.

It is important to note that November 13 is considered a school day but some students manage to sneak out and hold a party. It is also tradition, in certain areas of Tenerife, to throw eggs to those who attend classes. On the other hand, at present, the reason for this tradition is disappearing and young people use the day to rest.