One of my favourite times of the year is coming up and I am a huge fan of all these types of parties that give you freedom and allow you to have fun, so it is not uncommon for one of my favourite parties to be Halloween.
I know that many people do not like it because they do not like terror or they think that it is an American tradition that we have brought and that it is not related to our original customs, in my opinion both are wrong and I will try to justify it throughout this post.
I will start by saying that the tradition of Halloween dates back thousands of years, being a pagan celebration, Samhain, which was later assimilated by Christians, becoming All Saints’ Day, so it is not a modern holiday. There is evidence throughout Europe of similar festivals until the beginning of the 20th century that little by little stopped being celebrated and that now with the arrival of Halloween they are being celebrated again, so not everything is terror and American traditions.
As I mentioned at the beginning, it is one of my favourite festivals so I have been researching a little about how it is celebrated in Portugal and what are the local traditions beyond the typical “trick or treat” that we all know and I have found some of them and I am going to show you some of the most interesting.
- Pão por Deus: this is a party celebrated on November 1, the children go around the houses (without wearing costumes) repeating pão por deus (bread for God) and various verses and people give them sweets, cakes and nuts. Does this tradition remind you of anything?
It is curious how this type of tradition of delivering sweet things and nuts occurs in many countries and this is because they are foods that do not rot and that is why they are often associated with death.
- Festa da Cabra e do Canhoto: this festival takes place in Barrança and in it bonfires are lit on October 31 and rituals from the Celtic era are recreated.
- Noite dos fatos: it is celebrated in Vilar de Perdizes and in it the boys steal straw from the people and go to the hills to scream to scare away the spirits, witches and demons
This list can go on indefinitely, but I think these 3 examples show what I meant when I say that Halloween is a party that also belongs to us and maybe I have discovered a future plan to learn more about these traditions.
