Ox-drawn floats bearing sacred images of Mary draw hundreds of people to the procession in Portugal’s wine region
Galego and Cabano, two dark-haired oxen, pulled the sacred picture of Our Girl of Treatments on a procession float for greater than two hours via this small city in Portugal’s wine nation.
They remained unperturbed even when two cannons fired salutes on the procession’s finish, however their proprietor, an area farmer, beamed with delight.
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“I like to work with animals, and I’ve plenty of religion in Nossa Senhora dos Remédios,” mentioned Antonio Faustino, who guided the huge animals within the celebration of this explicit picture of the Virgin Mary, commemorated right here for the reason that 1500s. “There isn’t any phrase to clarify the emotion.”
Lamego’s competition, nicknamed “Portugal’s pilgrimage,” is likely one of the oldest and largest of the various non secular feasts that all through summer season draw tens of hundreds of individuals to hamlets and metropolises. They continue to be widespread on this quickly secularizing nation, the place the Catholic Church has been reckoning this yr with a long-ignored clergy sexual abuse scandal that Pope Francis addressed when he marked World Youth Day final month in Lisbon.
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Floats through the steep cobblestone streets of Lamego
The Maronesa oxen pairs, and a number of other others pulling floats via Lamego’s steep cobblestone streets previous a number of church buildings – some courting again to the Center Ages – make this competition uncommon. Usually, it’s the devoted who carry the assorted likenesses of Mary in comparable festivals the world over.
It suits the agricultural traditions of the Douro River Valley, the place vineyards produce port wine. In early September, the grape harvest is in full swing, predominantly executed by hand on the slender, terraced hillsides.
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A century in the past, the Vatican formally granted particular permission for animals to drag the floats with life-sized statues of the Virgin Mary, mentioned the Rev. Fernando Albano Cardoso, who for 40 years has organized the festivities.
As agriculture turns into extra mechanized, nevertheless, it’s tough to search out farmers like Faustino, who has introduced his oxen to Our Girl for 10 years and plans to proceed doing so.
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One other unusual facet of the procession is the long-lasting century-old sacred picture standing on the bow of a boat-shaped float – the Virgin Mary breastfeeding toddler Jesus.
“It’s the nicest second for a lady, to nurture a toddler,” mentioned Albano. The priest mentioned the statue symbolizes the motherly look after all devoted by Our Girl of Treatments, whose statue is generally commemorated in a sanctuary practically 700 steps up a stone stairway ascending the city’s highest hill.
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Along the procession route, many people had reserved a place with folded benches the night before. Most noticeable on windows with festive curtains.
Final Friday, individuals two or three deep lined the procession route, many having staked out a spot with folded stools the evening earlier than. Extra noticed from festively draped home windows.
They watched in silence because the oxen pulled the 5 floats. Continuing with them had been solemn marching bands, the bishop and native clergy carrying a sacred relic, and about 200 devoted in historic or Biblical costume.
Not less than 50 had been ladies wearing pink and blue just like the Virgin statue, carrying Jesus dolls or actual infants. Amongst them was Julieta Pereira, who has lived in Switzerland for greater than 30 years however got here again to her native Lamego to participate within the procession as a vow to Mary for therapeutic her from complicated coronary heart and knee operations.
“Will probably be onerous, however we cease rather a lot, so I’ll get little rests,” Pereira mentioned, including that as a toddler she used to trip on the floats, as a number of kids did this yr.
Filipe Mendonça introduced his two kids to observe the procession, as he has executed since his childhood.
“It’s a household custom that I need to transmit,” he mentioned. Regardless that he’s not an everyday churchgoer, the feast issues as a household and group second.
That mixture of religion and native traditions helps the Catholic Church stay an essential establishment in up to date Portugal, the place 80% of residents describe themselves as Catholic, in response to Alfredo Teixeira, a theology professor on the Catholic College of Portugal in Lisbon.
Conventional religiosity developed in relationship with the social buildings of a farming society, he added, in order that Christian worship merged with reverence for “the God of our land.”
However for all of the timeless high quality of the Lamego procession, there are additionally poignant up to date reminders.
Firefighters marched in time, their gold helmets and silver axes shining in the sun.
Alongside the route, individuals applauded when greater than a dozen firefighters marched in step, their golden helmets and silver axes gleaming within the solar. It signified how weak locals really feel to more and more harmful wildfires raging throughout excessive warmth waves.
Considered one of this yr’s floats represented Our Girl of Peace, her statue framed by flags of conflict-ridden nations like Ukraine and Libya. A unit of the Portuguese Military’s particular forces – sporting inexperienced fatigues, purple bandannas and white gloves – helped carry the floats from the meeting level into the streets, the place they had been hitched to the oxen.
A contingent marched alongside the primary Our Girl of Treatments float, and gingerly loaded her statue on a army jeep to hold her dwelling to the sanctuary after the procession ended on the particular operations headquarters on the identical hillside, subsequent to a granite Sixteenth-century convent.
“The non secular part is an intrinsic a part of the group,” mentioned Lamego’s mayor, Francisco Lopes, who marched alongside civil and army authorities. That makes preserving the custom a precedence whilst the town grows extra multicultural, he added.
Even former residents return for these parties.
The festivities – which other than the Sept. 8 procession additionally embody greater than two weeks of markets, festivals and concert events – give a wanted enhance to the native financial system. Whereas most villages in Portugal’s inside are slowly depopulating, even former residents come again for these feasts.
Jennifer Esteves got here from Germany together with her two ladies, ages 1 and 4, to go to the sanctuary alongside her mom and grandmother, who first introduced her right here to hope when she was 6.
She arrived too late to enter the packed church for the Friday morning Mass, however she cherished seeing the group.
“Many individuals have religion, particularly on this Virgin,” she mentioned after reciting a prayer inside. “Once we go to Portugal, we all the time come.”