Festivals in Portugal

Easter Here are some curiosities about the Easter traditions in Portugal. 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.

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, symbolizingChrist, the light of people has recorded in it the words Alpha and Omega (God is the beginning and the end of everything).

Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs 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.

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.

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.

Festivities of Carnival 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.

By Martyna Kostrzycka Class 6b Mikołaj Kopernik Primary School Number 9 in Dzierżoniów THE END