Happy "Dia de São João"!

São João (Saint John) is the Patron Saint of the best city in the world... Porto! ;) Click here and here to learn more about the tradition and how "Portuenses" celebrate it!

"Feira de São Martinho 2012" by 7th E

And do you still remember last year's great work by 9th A?

São João @ Porto

found pic @ Meus Escritos

Every year, on the night of 23rd June, my city - Porto - becomes lively and crazier than ever. Thousands of people come to the centre and to the most traditional neighborhoods to pay a tribute to São João Baptista, in a party that mixes sacred and profane traditions.

The festivities have been held in the city for more than six centuries, yet it was during the 19th century that Saint John's day became impregnated in the city's culture and assumed the status of the city's most important festival.

In fact, the party starts early in the evening of 23rd June and usually lasts until the morning of 24th. The traditional attractions of the night include street concerts, popular dancing parties, jumping over flames, eating barbecued sardines and meat, drinking wine, vases of swet basil with rhymes (manjericos), releasing illuminated flame-propelled balloons over Porto's summer sky and hitting people in the head with small plastic hammers (martelinhos) or with wild leek (alho porro).

found pic @ EHMA

At midnight the partygoers make a short break to look at the sky at Saint John's firework spectacle. The show is increasingly sophisticated with the fireworks being associated with themes and multimedia shows. 

The party has sacred roots but is also mixed with pagan traditions, with the fireworks embodying the spirit of tribute to the sun. 

One could expect the firework to be the climax and mark the end of the festivities. Yet, it is quite common for us to keep celebrating until 3 or 4 in the morning. Younger people take it even a step further. They walk from Porto's riverside core - Ribeira (for instance the parish of São Nicolau up to the seaside in Foz or to Matosinhos where they wait for the sunrise near the sea! So, let's go because I'm expecting this weekend to be memorable!

Source: Wikipedia (abridged and adapted)

Manjerico

I was thinking about Portuguese traditions and I decided to share with you something that is already part of the popular tradition by this time of the year and a very dear family tradition for me, too. My Grandmother used to buy a vase of "manjerico" - sweet basil - and take care of it, most of the times until Christmas! The plant is very delicate and smells deliciously, but has a short period of "living". This one will probably last for a couple of months, so you can see how my Grandmother really knew how to do it! I miss her so much and not only because of the plants... :)

These vases are also part of the tradition of Festas Populares, celebrating Santo António de Lisboa, São João e São Pedro. Tomorrow, June 13th, Lisbon and some other parts of the country celebrate Santo António, who was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. Though he died in Padua, Italy, he was born to a wealthy family in Lisbon, where he was raised. Noted by his contemporaries for his forceful preaching and expert knowledge of Scripture, he was declared a saint almost immediately after his death. Santo António is known here in Portugal (but also in Spain and Brazil) as a marriage saint, because there are legends of him reconciling couples. His feast day is celebrated with parades in the different neighbourhoods, sweet basil vases, roasted sardines, stanzas of four lines and marriages.

found pic @ Down East Stained Glass