The Holy Spirit Party.
Hi Alex, and hi my friends.
How are you today? Did you enjoy your day? Well, I hope so.
April is almost finishing, the Easter was behind, and all the city is driving its attention to the next month, May, which will set one of the most traditionals city festivals. May is the month which all the city dress itself up in red to celebrate the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit Party.
It´s a beautiful demonstration of faith and folklore in honour of the Holy Spirit.
Fifty days after the Easter, the Christians celebrate the Pentecost, which is the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Jesus Apostles and followers.
So, ten days before the Pentecost, the party hosts, who are a couple elected to direct and raise funds to the realisation of the party, open the "Holy Spirit Empire" ( Império do Divino), together with the bishop and the faithful. The Empire is a chapel where twenty four hours a day the faithful go to pray the rosary during the party celebratition. It´s all built and ornate, in red in order to remember the fire flames ( the Holy Spirit gifts) which descent upon the Apostles.
At the dawn, there is the "Alvorada" ( the Dawn), when people go to the streets saying the rosary, and in every single day after they finished their prayers, is serverd a breakfast, which consist in a piece of bread or cake and biscuits with a cup of coffee sweetened with brown sugar. Therefore, when the night falls, the Mass is celebrated, and then there is a bazaar with folklore groups apresentations and typical food, which the most famous is the "afogado".
The afogado is a stew made of pieces of meat, potatoes and seasonings, very apreciatte for all who come to the party. However, the peak of the party is on the Saturday before the Pentecost day, it´s the Palm Heart Entrance ( Entrada dos Palmitos), which is a mix of religious celebration and folklore apresentations. It has this name because of more than three hundred years ago, when has started the party, the carts were ornate with the palm heart that they brought of the harvest, though, nowadays the carts are ornate with flowers.
So, on Saturday all the city stops to see the red parede in honour of the Holy Spirit passes by. There are people spread on the sidewalks waving red flags singing and smiling, children stunning with the beauty of the horses and their owners ability, the folklore dancing groups such as Congada, Monçambique and others with their members full of joy for one more year celebranting the Holy Spirit.
I can´t put in words how beautiful this celebration is, I wish that you could be here, and feel the beat of the drums, see the smiling faces while the parade is passing by. The parede finishes at the midday, when is served for free the afogado for all the people who participated of the Palm Heart Entrance.
On Sunday the Pentecost Mass is celebrated, and at the midnight the hosts, bishop and the faithful closing the Holy Spirit Empire, and in this way, ending one more year of this traditional party. Here are some photos:
I´d like to say thank you to Adriana ( I loved it that you called me Aninha!), Hyoshil (my mum says thank you, and my sister says hello to you) and Katy for their kind and supportive comments in my yesterday´s blog. I really apreciatted to read them, and of course the others ones too.
Now, Paul, I have a question for you. Could you tell me when I have to say good bye, please? Is on Friday 27th, or on Monday 30th? I hope that will be on Monday.
Good night, have nice dreams,
Ana Paula.
Comments
thank u for introducing another splendid culture to us,Ana
Hi Ana Paula, "English Osmosis" what is it? is it a phrase? you say, this is a brand new method . I'd like to learn about English Osmosis. How long has this brand new method been carried out? and Where ? I mean which countries?. What are the pros and cons of this new method.I should try as well. As Most of people learning English, I have some difficulties with prepositions. I wonder the people ,whose native language is English, have ever had difficulties with prepositions! for instance, at least at elementary school. What do you think is the easiest way to learn prepositions? Could your sister please write her way to follow about prepositions? Your grammer and writing style are excellent, which has made my engilish improved a lot since I started to follow your and Alex's blogs on BBC LE.
Hi Aninha. So intense this blog today in writing and in the pictures. By the way, beautiful pictures! There are lots of these celebrations in my city too. There is a mass every hour in the "Convento da Penha". I had a boyfriend whose family was italian and catholic as your family. So, we were always arguing because he wanted to go with me to the first mass every saturday, sunday and religious holidays. Can you imagine what time it starts? 5 am. I already wake up very early every day to work. And worse, I had to wake up earlier to get dressed and climb that mountain because, you know, the Convento da Penha is on the top of the mountain. One hour just to climb! By the time, I tried to persuade him to go later and said for many times that I didn't mind not to be the first of the line to go to heaven, but he was hard to convince. We are not together anymore and now I like to go there in the afternoon to watch the mass and to see the sunset from there. I think God tells me more in a sunset than in a mass. Waw! I need to sleep now! A short message to Paul: Paul, where's your blog? I couldn't find the way to comment there but I was reading it. It was good to see you and others from the BBC Learning English there. Kisses and byes. -------------------- Paul (BBC Learning English) Hi Adriana, we've stopped our blog now because we were only running it for the IATEFL conference. We will start it again the next time we are allowed out of the office. If you want to read it, you can still find it here http://bbclearningenglish.blogspot.com/ We couldn't update it on Sunday because the internet stopped working in Britain on that day.
Hi,Ana Paula Thank you so much to introduce The Holly Spirit Party and the pictures to us fascinatingly.Tt sounds fantastic and I wish I were there.The most what I like is your expressions of the atmosphere of the party which help me to feel and smell it like realities. Pat youself on the back for it well done.Have a fabulous day!hyoshil
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