At Vila Boa, a village in the municipality of Vinhais on a slope of the Nogueira hills, the masks, bagpipes and all the things common to the pagan festivities of the Northeastern Portugal can also be found. There a festivity …
Demons of New Year
There are many Winter traditions in Trás-Os-Montes that, like so many in Europe, go all the way back to the pre-christian Winter Solstice celebrations. Without going into much details, because are too complex for me to explain well enough, these …
Festa dos Rapazes, or Young Men’s Festival – Ousilhão
On December 26, Saint Stephen day (the saint that brings this pagan festivity to the catholic realm), four young men wearing hats and colorful scarfs start the day by knocking on the houses at Ousilhão, a small village in the …
Winter solstice in Trás-Os-Montes
Every time I leave Trás-Os-Montes (the region in the northeast of Portugal) I leave overwhelmed, with all the warmth and generosity I get from the people in that cold forgotten corner of the country. Sometimes I feel that’s where my …
After The Fall…
The Summer wildfires of 2017 in Portugal were particularly devastating, destructive and deadly… Every year there’s a wildfire season that goes through the hottest and driest months, has been a chronic issue for decades, specially in the central regions of …