The Portuguese love their festivals and holidays! Most are centered around patron saints and religious events. Every town, big or small,  seems to have a special saint, or two. They have the celebrations throughout the year, but the heaviest concentration of events is June through September.

In our town of Matosinhos, the big annual festival is in honor of Senhor de Matosinhos. It runs for a little over three weeks and just ended today. Senor de Matosinhos (also known as the Bom Jesus)  is what they call the statue of Christ on the cross they have in the church. There are several versions of the legend of its origin, but most have the statue being carved my Nicodemus who helped bury Christ after the crucifixion. He then had to dispose of the statue at sea to avoid persecution. It is said to have washed up on the shore of Matosinhos in the year 124 missing one arm. For 50 years artisans tried to craft a matching arm with no real success. Then, it is said, a piece of firewood rolled out of a woman’s fireplace. Her daughter, deaf-mute since birth, spoke for the first time exclaiming it was the missing arm of the statue. It fit perfectly. Ever since, the Bom Jesus has been kept in the church here and a very powerful Catholic sect in Portugal and in Brazil is based on it. It is said to be the oldest religious artifact in the country.

For the festival, the town is all lit up. The streets from town center to the main church are lined with hundreds of vendors of all kinds. About a third seem to be selling bakery. There’s also ceramics, crafts, restaurants, and more. For several days there is a large midway with more higher-quality rides for all ages than I have seen at most state fairs. One night they do fireworks that start at midnight. We were thrilled to be able to watch them from our rooftop terrace with some friends. They do a “burning of the dolls” which we’ll need to see next year. There are many different musical performances, exhibits, speakers, and more. Once a year, during this festival, they take the Bom Jesus statue from the church and parade it with much fanfare and many participants through town to the monument near the beach where it is said to have been found. Thousands of people come from all over to watch the parade. Everything about this festival was of a much grander scale than we expected for a smallish city.

Below are some photos from the festival the last three weeks.