Summer traditions Ponte de Lima

Vaca das cordas (The tied Cow with ropes) This feast is celebrated with a cow(bull), held by ropes. The venture starts off when it leaves a house and wanders through the streets of the town. During this feast, the people escort the cow and “amuse themselves”. Sometimes, of course, things go wrong. At dusk, when the bull and the people are already tired, the animal is taken away while the party people recharge their batteries into the night, at the bars and little snack places scattered throughout the headquarters of the municipality. This festival takes place in June. This is a tradition that dates back to 1646, where a code of conduct obliged the millers of the municipality (function ministers), to lead a wild cow tied with ropes, under the threat of a jail sentence of a payment of 200 Reis (the currency of that time)

The Feast of the Municipality of Ponte de Lima, the traditional "FEIRAS NOVAS“, was created by King Pedro IV on May 5th, This feast, which is also called “The Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows”, was popularized as “Feiras Novas”, to tell them apart from the fortnightly Monday markets/fairs, the oldest ones in Portugal, which had already been mentioned in the charter of Queen Teresa, awarded to Ponte de Lima on March 4th, Feiras Novas (The New Market / Fair)

The Campground of the Pentieiros Farm has equipment built from scratch (the only one in the municipality), for camping fans. Camping is a tradition for many people who visit Ponte de Lima. Camping

Picnics Picnics are a way to have fun, to have lunch in places where one is closer to nature. A beach, a forest, or a place near a river are fine places for picnics. Ponte de Lima has a few picnic places scattered throughout the Municipality. They are done more often in the Summer because the weather is better.

Canoeing– Going down the Lima River The Municipality of Ponte de Lima, along with the Nautical Club of Ponte de Lima, promotes an annual descent of the Lima River in a canoe.

This tradition requires special attention. It is, without a doubt, the biggest event of its kind held in northern Portugal. Horses and well- known riders from various regions light up the event, which transforms the Expolima area into a ring of excellence with the Lima River in the background. Horse Fair

Singers / Players In Ponte de Lima, there were always good singers. The fairs and festivals have always been their meeting place. The skills of the singers stand out particularly in the improvisation of songs that are heard on feast days or market days, in the festival areas and in the squares in front of the taverns or any place where there is a guitar, a concertina, a “cavaquinho” (small guitar), musical instruments now unfortunately replaced by the accordion.

Every year, Ponte de Lima is the Portuguese capital of gardens. Since 2005, it has annually held the International Garden Festival, an unprecedented initiative in Portugal and which meets the environmental and landscape policies that the town is proud of. Every year from May to late October, tens of thousands of visitors discover twelve different gardens, with or without a theme, which aim to highlight the different approaches and ways of being towards this art which is the construction of ephemeral gardens. The Garden Festival

The Turkey Act “Turkey” is a play which is performed in Ponte de Lima during the Feast of the Cross of Stone, on the second Sunday in August. The play symbolizes the wars that existed between the Christians and the Moors. This play has been performed for many years. The play has 12 characters on each side: a king, a captain, a spy, a flag holder, an ambassador and the rest are soldiers. There is a group on each side and two battles are performed. In the end the Christians win.