Festivals in Portugal

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Festivals in Portugal
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Easter

• Here are some curiosities about the Easter
  traditions in Portugal.
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• At the beginning of the times, Easter as we know
  it today didnt exist. The Easter word comes from
  the Hebraic Peseach, which means transition,
  passage. Our Christian Easter is an adaptation of
  the Jewish Easter celebrations that celebrated
  the freedom of the Jewish people and the escape
  from Egypt to the Holy Land. The first Christians
  continued celebrating this date, but attributed
  it a new signification, being celebrated the
  passage from death to life the death of Christ
  and his Resurrection.

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• Easter hasnt got a fixed date. It was in the
  Council of Niceia, in the IV century a.C., that
  was decided that the Easter date was calculated
  based on the position of the moon, between the
  22nd of March and the 25th of April, since the
  Spring begins on the 21st of March. The 40 days
  period preceding the Easter Sunday is called
  Lent, being this period, to the Christians, a
  time of praying, penitentiary and abstinence
  (during this time, according to the Christian
  traditions, it is forbidden to eat meat on
  Fridays). Christian Easter has symbols and
  traditions that have survived for centuries. The
  Ressurection Cross is, maybe, one of the biggest,
  representing the suffering of Jesus Christ. The
  Sheep symbolizes Christ, son of Gods Sheep who
  was sacrificed in behalf of the herd (the Human
  kind). The Bread and the Wine will, for all
  eternity, represent the body and blood of Jesus.
  And finally the Cirius, a big candle that is
  lightened on Hallelujah Saturday, symbolizing
  Christ, the light of people has recorded in it
  the words Alpha and Omega (God is the beginning
  and the end of everything).

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Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs

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• These two traditions seem to be created by
  todays consumism, much like the myth of Santas
  red clothes. Anyway, These traditions seem to
  have nothing to do with the Christian Easter
  Celebration, but its not really like that
• The Easter Egg is one of the most ancient Easter
  symbols, representing the fertility and the
  restart of life. The ancient tradition was to
  cook chicken eggs, paint them very colourfully
  and give them to friends and family, being this
  tradition born between the Egyptian, Persian and
  Germanic cultures, centuries ago. Nowadays, we
  believe that are the Chinese that, for many
  millenniums present family with eggs on spring
  parties, but the tradition as sticked and it
  continues.
• The nice Mr. Easter Bunny as also been lend by
  the ancient Egypt, who considered this animal a
  symbol of fertility. Due to his capacity of
  generating lots of little bunnies, the image of
  the rabbit symbolized the church ability to
  create new disciples.

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Christmas

• In Portugal Christmas is very important, and
  we have lots of old traditions. It is a time to
  be with our families, or our friends, or maybe
  both. Already in the beginning of December, we
  prepare the Christmas tree, for us to fill it
  under with presents during the all month (only
  until the Christmas Eve). We also set up the
  crib over here we call it Presépio.

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• On Christmas Eve, when all the family is
  together, we eat a big dinner. We eat cod fish
  with potatoes for main plate and many traditional
  and tasty sweets for dessert. After dinner, all
  the family gets together, and when the clock
  rings midnight, everybody opens their presents
  and happiness grows.  Also on Christmas Eve, many
  people go to the mass late in the evening, which
  is called Missa do Galo. In Portugal, there are
  some organizations that collect  presents to give
  to the poor children. And last year, a giant tree
  with 72 meters tall (the biggest in Europe) was
  in Lisbon, for everyone to see and enjoy.

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Festivities of Carnival

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• In the past, Carnival was more aggressive
  than today.  A real war was happened in the
  streets, and in that war, the weapons were eggs,
  flour, fruit, beans that people threw from the
  window. Barrels of beer rolled over the streets,
  and everybody was struggling to get home. It was
  very brutal.Nowadays, Carnival is far more clean
  than it used to be.

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By Martyna KostrzyckaClass 6bMikolaj Kopernik
Primary School Number 9 in Dzierzoniów

• THE END