Festos dos Santos Populares! It is celebration time in Lisbon, Portugal! It is the festival of the popular Saints Anthony, John and Peter. When you do your Lisbon vacation planning, make sure that you get to experience the local festivals here, particularly in June. These are extremely colorful and you will see lovely traditional costumes, jewelry and mesmerizing fado music. In addition to this, you will have the pleasure of seeing a lot of Portuguese weddings. Almost every city in Portugal has its own festival during summer, honoring its patron saint. So when you book your Lisbon travel, do it well in advance to ensure cheap flights to Lisbon so that you don’t miss this great experience.
Festival Honoring Saint Anthony
It’s June and everyone in Lisbon is eagerly looking forward to “festa” or festival time! The Feast of St. Anthony is celebrated across Lisbon from June 12 through June 14 every year. This is a celebration of huge proportions. St Anthony is a saint famous for his miracles and is invoked for various things – recovering lost items, finding the perfect partner, etc. The city’s mayor conducts free weddings in St Anthony’s Church and then everyone has a great time, with Alfama district hosting an all-night street fair. The entire city seems to be decorated for the festival, with colorful paper lanterns, lights and streamers. At the end of the day, there’s a parade “Marchas Populares” down the Avenida da Liberdade. In this you will see neighborhoods marching, trying to outdo each other in their resplendent costumes and singing their hearts out – to win the coveted best prize. There’s plenty of food and drink for everyone with cheerful laughter to accompany it – and you can enjoy some great Lisbon dining.
Along with the traditional celebrations, you can take part in the local traditional games on the eve of the festival. Here’s a fun way to do it – take a small bowl and fill it with water. On small pieces of paper, write down the names of the people you would like as your perfect partner. Roll them, place them in the bowl, and keep this bowl under your bed. When you wake up in the morning, look into the bowl. The name you see most clearly is that of your perfect partner. Another interesting ritual is for young men to gift pots of basil to the women they love.
The Portuguese people are an extremely superstitious lot. During May, many Lisboetas actually crawl on their hands and knees to the holy site of Fatima. Legend has it that three shepherd children saw the Virgin Mary right here in 1917.
Lisbon is also a liberal city – and another Lisbon attraction is the Lisbon Gay & Lesbian Film Festival held every year.
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