Portal de Totana
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With the arrival of each new month of September, the residents of Totana are preparing to celebrate one of the oldest and most endearing religious festivities in our Municipality: the Fiesta in honor of the Virgin of La Huerta .
But this year 2020, due to the adverse circumstances that we are experiencing (and suffering) from the effects of the current pandemic, they will not be able to be celebrated with the usual joy and dedication of all previous years.The dire effects of this harsh health crisis are forcing us to continuously adapt and readapt in order to continue our day-to-day life.
And this is what we are also going to do this year with the festivities of the Hermitage of the Diputación de La Huerta, because from this magnificent informative space that Totana.com offers us , we can add a nuance of "digital celebration", through the which, we are going to take the opportunity to briefly highlight some of the most relevant details of the history of this revered Totanero place.Where can we find the Hermitage of La Huerta?The Hermitage of the Virgen de La Huerta is one of the oldest Christian constructions in Totana, and is located in the Diputación de La Huerta .La Ermita is about 5.5 km from the urban center of Totana, and is at the end of the so-called "Crta de La Huerta" (C-7, old Camino de Los Molinos).Some historical data:This temple was built by the residents of the Diputación de La Huerta, and consecrated in honor of the Virgin Mary, under the dedication of the Nativity of Our Lady the Virgin of La Huerta de Totana.Unfortunately not many data are preserved about this venerated place, because during the Civil War, the Hermitage was desecrated and all its liturgical furnishings destroyed.
Only the titular image of the Virgin of La Huerta was saved, thanks to the skill and audacity of some huertanos, who found the opportunity to properly hide it.But taking into account the data that is gradually being collected, we know that this is one of the oldest places of religious worship, of those that exist in the Municipality of Totana.
One of the documents that are preserved on the Hermitage of La Huerta, dates from September 22, 1812.
In said letter, the Bishopric of Cartagena grants its license, so that it can be celebrated, -in the new Hermitage dedicated to the dedication of the Nativity of Our Lady-, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Christian Doctrine is explained.To this day, -and the research work that is underway has not been completed-, we could place the origin of this Hermitage, in the early years of the 18th century , (ca 1704, the year in which two other Hermitages were also built in rural areas more distant from the urban nucleus of Totana).The Hermitage as a place of celebration and meeting:The Hermitage was built to meet the religious needs of the residents of La Huerta.
For this reason, from its origins, -and until the mid-70s of the last 20th century-, the Hermitage was:A permanent meeting place for neighbors;A cultural reference for all the huertanos who lived very far from the urban nucleus;And a place to attend Sunday Mass and celebrate the sacraments.For more than 300 years, the residents of La Huerta came to its Hermitage to attend catechesis; to receive the sacraments (Marriages, First Communions, Confessions,…); to attend Sunday Mass; to celebrate their Patron Saint Festivities;… and they even took place neighborhood assemblies and various coexistence meetings at different times of the year.The Hermitage today:Currently in the Ermita de La Huerta three fixed festivals are celebrated every year:The Patron Saint Festivities that coincide with the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, on September 8 of each year.The day of the Birth of Child Jesus, December 25.And on New Year's Day, January 1st.To these three celebrations we must add other meetings, days of coexistence, celebration of silver and gold weddings of some residents of La Huerta, etc.The importance of the Virgin of La Huerta.The image of the Virgin Mary that presides over the Altar, is a delicate and harmonious sculpture made of alabaster, - framed within the iconographic style of Trapani -, whose date would be between the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century.María is a simple woman, a woman of the town, close, humble, with whom it is extremely easy to identify.
And possibly it is because of all this that throughout the centuries, the residents of La Huerta have sought and venerated it intensely in its Hermitage, and even today, they still want to show their admiration, respect and devotion.Diego Jesus Romera Gonzalez
Source: Diego Jesús Romera González
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