Unique ways of honouring the divinities

Religious feasts celebrated in the Algarve keep alive the tradition of celebrating important events in the community.

The main religious feast in the Algarve is the Feira da Mãe Soberana (Festival of the Sovereign Mother), celebrated in Loulé.  On Easter Sunday, the statue of Our Lady is brought down from the Sanctuary to the Church of St Francis.  Fifteen days later, the procession through the streets of the city culminates in a walk back up the rocky slope to the top of the hill.  Thousands of people, moved by the experience, run up the hill following the litter with the statue back to the Sanctuary.   

In São Brás de Alportel, the Festa da Aleluia (Alleluia Festival) also held on Easter Sunday includes an all male procession.  In their hands, men carry torches made from flowers.  The streets are laid with flower carpets and the houses decorated with patchwork quilts similarly made from flowers.

Easter processions take place in most cities, either in celebration of the death of Jesus Christ or his resurrection.

Summer sees the start of another set of religious celebrations, linked to the patron saints of various places, often mixed with pagan rituals linked to harvests and occupations.   Fishermen take the statue of their patron saint in their boats and pray for protection in their labours on the high seas.  In the mountains, they pray for plentiful harvests.

Christmas celebrations start on the 8^th December with the Deitar dos trigos (Putting the wheat to bed) ceremony in which grains of different cereals are planted in little pots which, when grown, form little wheat fields that are then used to decorate the Nativity Scene; and end with groups of singers called charolas singing janeiras or Christmas carols, on the 6^th January, the Feast of the Three Wise Men.