Festas dos Santos Populare

The largest and best city wide festival in Portugal is the Popular Saint’s Festival (Portuguese - Festas dos Santos Populare) The celebrations are in honour of Saint Peter, Saint John and most importantly Saint Anthony, the patron saint of Lisbon (and weddings and lost causes). To read more about Saint Anthony click here.  Lisbon decorates it’s self with steamers and tinsel, people dance to traditional bands in the streets and sardines are barbequed on street corners.

The main day for 2012 celebrations and carnival processions will be on Tuesday the 12th June. The carnival starts late around 9 and continues well after midnight, throughout the city there will be open air traditional bands playing music, the best will be centred around Alfama and will continue until the sun rises. If you are planning a holiday to Portugal make every attempt to be in Lisbon during this period as the atmosphere is fantastic - but hotels do book up and increase prices.

 

The highlight of the Popular Saint Festival (Festas dos Santos Populare) which run for over a week, are the marches, a carnival procession down the Liberty Avenue in which all of the districts of Lisbon compete to be crowned procession of the year. Each district’s procession includes marching bands, dance troops, highly decorative props and the obligatory Portuguese celebrity.

The processions halt twice down the route to perform their dance routine in front of a judging panel, who at the end of the evening select their winner. The processions run all nigh as there are 23 districts of Lisbon.As part of the celebrations for Saint Anthony (the patron saint of weddings) there is a mass wedding on his feast day.

 

The TV channels have cottoned on to this tradition and now it is a prime time TV series meeting and selecting the brides and grooms who benefit from a wedding paid by the production company.  Strangely the wedding of the lucky couples occurs in the Se not the church dedicated to Saint Anthony which is less than 20 meters away. During the processions for the festival of Lisbon the newlyweds parade down the avenue to the cheers of the crowds.

During the build up to the festival oil drum barbeques appear on many street corners ready to grill the sardines to the delight of the Lisbon citizens. Locals hang tinsel across the narrow streets and entrepreneurs open temporary bars ready for the festivities.

 

Countless band stands are constructed and traditional music can be enjoyed  a week before the Popular Saint Festival in Lisbon (Festas dos Santos Populare). The style of the music is at the opposite end of the music scale from the haunting sound of Fado, with its emotional lyrics and powerful vocals. Festive music is up-tempo, designed for dancing, while the lyrics are suggestive or outright rude and sometimes best not understood.

 

Little potted thyme plants shaped as balls with fake colourful flowers and a heartfelt poem attached called majericos, are given as gifts to loved ones. The plants and along with the sardines are the symbol of the popular saint celebration and cleverly the plants have been transformed into hanging decorations.

 

The traditional food of the Popular Saints Festival celebrations are grilled sardines and many oil drum barbeques appear which cook the sardines fresh from the Atlantic. The sardines are grilled with little preparation so retain their heads and contain many little bones so be careful if purchasing one.

 

Saint Anthony’s day is on the 12 of June, St John is on the 10 of June and saint Peter is on the 28 of June, while the marches and main celebrations are on the second Saturday of June, with minor traditional dances on the pro and preceding weekends. If planning a holiday or vacation to Lisbon or portugal it is strongly advised to time the trip to coincide with the Popular Saint Festival Lisbon (Festas dos Santos Populare)