The Sand Belén celebrates Christmas, once again, on the beach of Las Canteras in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

The traditional and ephemeral nativity scene opened the doors of its 18th edition today, Tuesday, with an artistic proposal of eight Christmas scenes that have been modeled by nine sculptors, with the largest representation of Canarian artists in its history. Furthermore, on this occasion the Nativity Scene pays tribute to all the Canary Islanders who live outside their homeland.

The Sand Nativity Scene will be open to the public from today, Tuesday, December 5, until Monday, January 8, 2024, from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., except for December 24 and 31, 2023 and January 2024, which will receive visitors until 8:00 p.m. Admission will be free and, as usual, donations made by visitors until the day of closing will be sent to the soup kitchens of the capital of Gran Canaria.

As usual, the solidarity donations from the Belén de Arena will go to the soup kitchens of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The La Caixa Foundation, through CaixaBank, will also deliver 6,000 euros as confirmed by the director of Institutional Banking at CaixaBank, Rubén Sánchez.

As a novelty in this edition, the scene of the sharecroppers modeled by the Canarian Etual Ojeda can be seen these days being built live and will represent the piece ‘La aparcería’ by the Canarian sculptor Santiago Vargas, exhibited in the municipality of Santa Lucía de Tirajana. This world-renowned artist in sand painting returns to participate in this way in the Sand Nativity Scene after many editions.

He is joined by Aarón and Bentejuí Ojeda, also from the Canary Islands, so that the traditional sand source of Las Canteras has the largest representation of local artists in its history. Aarón Ojeda has been in charge of modeling the daily life of the streets of Belén, inspired by the works El Risco de San Bernardo, by the Canarian painter Santiago Santana, and De Chamisso e India sambaigo, a work by the Mexican school at the end of the century. XVIII.

For its part, the fountain has been modeled by Bentejuí Ojeda and the multidisciplinary artist based in Gran Canaria Paco Arana, who have been inspired by the piece ‘Naturaleza con Fuentes’ by José Ribera.

In addition to the Canarians, five other sculptors of other nationalities have given life to this edition of the Nativity Scene, all of them having participated in previous editions. The ‘Heaven Readers’ scene, inspired by a piece by the Renaissance artist Michelangelo, has been sculpted in the sand by the American Sue McGrew. The Flight from Egypt, modeled by the Canadian Karen Fralich, is based on a specific design for the Sand Nativity Scene created by the Gran Canarian artist Adán López Alemán and in which the drama of forced migration to other lands is represented.

The Announcer Angel scene was the work of the Irish artist Fergus Mulvany and was inspired by a piece by El Greco; Their Majesties the Three Wise Men of the East have been given life by the Dutchman Johannes Christoffel and the American Gresham Glover has done the same with the birth of the baby Jesus.