In August, my friend Shelly and I traveled to a beautiful town in northern Portugal called Viana do Castelo. It's about 5 hours north by train from Lisbon. We went there because Shelly knew about a festival they have there once a year called Romaria de Nossa Señora D'Agonia. It's a 3-day festival that is very colorful and has a lot of different traditions that I'd like to learn more about. I didn't read the wonderful program before going but here it is and it's written in both Portuguese and English - though the English part seems much briefer than the Portuguese. I just found out, by looking on the internet, that the word "romario" means: pilgrimage. A"pilgrimage" is when people travel to a place (a shrine or church or "sanctuary" (safe place) ) that is important in their religion or in their beliefs. The word "romario" originally comes from people or "pilgrims" who traveled to Rome, Italy.
The main features of this festival involve fisherman giving thanks to their patron saint (Nossa Señora D'Agonia). This includes having processions and parades, decorating the streets with special "tapetes" or carpets made of colored salt, wearing traditional clothing that reflects the history and style of a particular village, fireworks all three nights at midnight on the river, lots of special foods and crafts and music and, most importantly, the Gigantones or giants, the cabeçudos and the drummers !
This festival was so interesting for many reasons...but the biggest reason I wanted to go was to see the Gigantones. Gigantones are giant paper mache people that exorcise (or get rid of) evil in the world. In Portuguese, they "exorcizar os males do mundo", according to the program I got at the festival. They also appear with "cabeçudos", which are referred to as big-headed puppets. The giants and puppets dance or whirl (turn around and around) to the beat of many groups of very loud drummers. It's really exciting to watch. Take a look at the video below to see them in action.
And here are some pics of the "cabeçudos" or puppet heads:
Another big part of this festival is wearing traditional costumes or clothing from all the different towns and villages of the Minho region (far north-west) in Portugal. We were able to attend a special "Festa do Traje" or Festival of Costumes performance and I learned that each place in Portugal traditionally had clothing with particular designs, colors, and fabric unique to that place. And, in the past, when people met each other outside their villages at a market or special occasion, they could identify exactly where people were from by the clothes they wore. Many times, scarves and aprons were used to dress up and personalize a woman's outfit so that she could distinguish herself and express her sense of style.
Also, I was really surprised to see that there is a traditional wedding outfit (for both the bride and groom) in black.
Viana do Castelo is famous for it's filigree jewelry and traditionally women would wear gold jewelry that was passed down through the generations. We learned that for special occasions, women would wear all the gold they owned to display the wealth and heritage of their family. The women dressed in traditional clothes are referred to as "mordomas" and here is an interesting quote from the program (see link above) about the gold they wear:
"...these mordomas represent the largest outdoor showcase of gold in the world."
.
Here is the famous Viana heart that is a popular jewelry design:
Program link explaining the "Mordomia" costumes:
The "tapetes" or carpets were made of colored salt and decorated the streets around the "ribeira" neighborhood near the water. People create them all night on Friday and they are usually gone by Sunday. We were lucky that we happened to take a walk in that area on Saturday. A lot of the themes of this festival are linked to the traditions of fishing and the sea. I didn't realize that the carpets are made to be walked on after the procession to the sea on Saturday. This part of the festival is traditionally for fisherman and their families to give thanks to the patron saint, Nossa Señora D'Agonia. Here are some photos:
Many people with homes and businesses around the ribeira also decorate their balconies and windows. It's fun to walk around and look at the decorations.
Another way people decorate for this festival is to hang bedspreads and special blankets out the window to display.
There were also special processions through the streets with marching bands, people in costumes, and people carrying religious icons.
There was also a procession from the main church to the sea to bless the fishing boats...
And, the lights at night were really beautiful.
And finally, here are a few more pics of the town. It was such a rich and amazing experience to see all of that in only 3 and a half days. I hope I make it back there someday again. I have a lot of respect for the Portuguese people. Even though there were big crowds of people every day, everyone was calm and polite to each other. It was really fun to be part of this festa ! Thank you to all the people of Viana and beyond who made this festa happen. It was so beautiful and interesting for me. I wish we had that kind of unity and rich cultural heritage in the U.S.
After the festa, Praça de Republica is almost empty.
No comments:
Post a Comment