Celebrating traditions

Whether pagan or religious, or a mixture of the two, popular festivals in the Algarve serve to cement cultural identity, keeping traditions and customs alive in celebrations  full of colour, music, dance and lots of merrymaking.

At the height of the almond blossom season, there is the “Entrudo” or Carnival revelry, which is hard to resist with its allegorical floats paraded through the streets.  Although Loulé organises one of the most spectacular carnivals in the region, there is always a celebration in a town nearby.

On the 1^st May, there is a celebration called Atacar o Maio, which means Attacking May!  This is a custom of tasting the first dried figs of the previous harvest, washed down with arbutus berry brandy.

Corn festivals are also celebrated in May, and it is worth going to Salir, in Loulé to see the folk procession and hear songs performed by folk groups.

June is the month for country festivals and village dances throughout the Algarve on Popular Saint days – St Anthony, St John and St Peter.  People eat grilled sardines and drink red wine to the sound of popular marches.

In August (29^th August), the Banho 29 (29^th Bath) tradition is honoured, harking back to the mountain folk coming down to the coast to bring a close to the summer with a dip in the sea, which “was as good as 29”.  In Lagos and on Manta Rota Beach, the celebration includes period bathing suits. .

Sometimes along the coast, fishermen and sailors organise processions in the sea in August and September, to give thanks and ask for blessings in their dangerous work.

During the warm summer evenings there isn’t a village, town or city that does not have a pilgrimage, in which tradition and modern life cross paths.