La Easter in Portugal It is not just about bunnies and eggs, as the country is rich in age-old traditions and rituals that celebrate the main feast of the Christian liturgical year.
National celebrations always include the fuck, a sweet or savory bread that comes with a hard-boiled egg in the center, representing the rebirth and resurrection of Christ, while cod is eaten at the main meal on Good Friday due to the tradition of abstaining from meat until the Resurrection is celebrated on Easter Sunday, which is accompanied by the smell of roast lamb.
During Holy Week, which marks the end of Lent in the run-up to Easter, the deeply Catholic country is full of religious rituals and traditions, followed by all kinds of people from the smallest villages to the largest cities.
The season celebrates the end of the forty-day period of fasting and penance known as Lent and the beginning of Holy Week - marking the days that preceded the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ in Christian tradition.
Good Friday
It marks the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ, it is a public holiday in Portugal and is the most important day of Holy Week after Easter Sunday. According to tradition, the faithful must abstain from eating meat.
As in many other Catholic countries, tradition asks the Portuguese to look for alternative food, and the choice falls on fish, and more particularly, cod.
Good Friday sees many processions taking place across the country. One of the main ones is the Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross), where the faithful relive the different stages of the Passion of Christ. Another important one is the Procissão do Senhor Morto procession (Procession of the Dead Lord), a sad event where the faithful march through the streets with candles singing on the way to bury a figure of Christ after the crucifixion.
Holy Saturday
Or Saturday of Alleluia in Portuguese, the last day of Holy Week, is traditionally a day of reflection before Easter Sunday, when the first mass is celebrated to celebrate the resurrection of Christ - the Easter Vigil (Pascal Vigil), in Saturday night.
Easter Sunday
It is the day when the resurrection of Jesus Christ is celebrated, various traditions and rituals are followed throughout the day. One of them is the visit of the priest, nowadays mainly in the villages, when people receive at home the visit of the priest of the parish who wears a figure of Christ, who is kissed by the faithful in exchange for the folar, what representing a small gift to the entourage.