Witches of Anaga

El Bailadero in Anaga. In this place were held covens, according to popular belief.

The Witches of Anaga were (according to popular belief) women who were devoted to covens in the mountainous area of Anaga in the northeast of the island of Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain).

These rituals were held in an area in the mountains of Anaga in the dorsal between San Andrés and Taganana. The area is called "El Bailadero", which refers to the dances performed witches around a bonfire. It was believed that these witches covens after its down to the coast to swim naked. With the passage of time, due to the influence of vampire stories in Eastern Europe led to the myth of witches sucked incorporate the aspect of blood, thus making them witch-vampire who sucked the blood of newborns as they slept in their cribs.^[1]

There is a theory that the origin of this legend, is due to pagan rituals associated with rituals that were celebrated guanches for rain, those which were considered as an act of witchcraft by the Catholic Church.

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