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Azoreans began Holy Ghost Festival
Posted 4/5/2012 Updated 4/5/2012
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Commentary by Eduardo Lima
65th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
4/5/2012 - LAJES FIELD, Portugal -- Every year, the Azoreans, especially the inhabitants of Terceira, celebrate the Holy Ghost Festival. This religious celebration begins Easter Sunday and runs for eight weeks until Pentecost and Trinity Sunday.
This ancient religious tradition began on mainland Portugal around 1296 by an initiative of Portuguese Queen Isabel. She founded the first Holy Ghost brotherhood whose intent was to honor the poorest man in the kingdom. According to the tradition, the poorest man was placed on the king's throne and crowned "emperor" for one day during a ceremony held in his honor in the royal church.
Following the crowning ceremony, a royal procession took the crowned man from the church to the palace, where a banquet was then offered in his honor. Considered an act of humbleness, the tradition was first introduced in the Azores through the first settlers around 1432 and practiced through subsequent generations.
Though the tradition has disappeared on mainland Portugal, it is still actively celebrated in the Azores, as well as in Azorean immigrant communities in the U.S., Canada and Brazil.
Although royalty and noblemen originally celebrated this religious event, it was adopted by the common people and the silver crowns replaced the royal crown. Traditionally, during natural catastrophes such as volcano eruptions and earthquakes, or when someone is seriously ill, the Azorean people carry the Holy Ghost crowns to the churches and pray for the Holy Ghost to save them.
If their prayers are answered, they host a week-long festival to honor the Holy Ghost. During the season, some members of the brotherhood previously selected by lot, are given the honor of keeping the Holy Ghost crowns and flags at their homes in a wooden altar decorated with white paper and flowers for one week.
In the evenings, the festival hosts, relatives and other guests gather in front of the altar to pray the rosary and worship the Holy Ghost.
Later in the week, on Thursday or Friday afternoon, it's time for the "festa do bezerro" (festival of the calves). The calves, usually two, are fetched from the pastures where they have been grazing year round and are paraded through the village streets after being garlanded with flowers, paper ribbons and cowbells.
Later in the evening, the calves are slaughtered and their meat is divided in different portions. Some is saved for the Sunday's banquet, while the remaining is given as alms to relatives and the town's poorest people.
On Sunday -- the most awaited and important day of the celebration -- activities start early in the morning with preparation of the food to be served later. At around 11:30 a.m., guests arrive at the hosts' house and a Holy Ghost parade forms and heads toward the church with the crowns and flags for the crowning ceremony during Mass.
After the Mass, the priest blesses the crowns and the individuals who are "crowned" - usually the hosts' children or the hosts themselves. The procession then heads back to the house through the village main streets with the honorees carrying the crowns in their heads.
Later in the afternoon, hundreds of guests take a seat for the Holy Ghost banquet that is served with Holy Ghost soup, boiled beef, alcatra, sweet bread and the local wine "vinho de cheiro."
The last event of the day and of the long week is when the hosts and guests take the crowns and flags, again in a parade, to the next honoree's home, where a similar celebration begins for a new family.
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