‘Entrudo’ is a traditional shrovetide celebration in Central
Portugal. Up in the mountains of Central Portugal they are trying to
keep this typical village tradition alive by keeping up the annual Entrudo and
encouraging new people to join in.
Celebrating Entrudo means cross dressing and making your own cork mask
(a local resource in the hills of Portugal).
Once suitably disguised you go and make some innocent mischief in the
neighbouring villages.
It’s
harmless enough; moving flower pots, creating barriers in the quiet village
roads, throwing cob nuts at people and generally making a noise. The sounds of the accordion are never far
from the ears and traditional limericks and bawdy rhymes are recited telling
the story of the villages, it’s history and it’s residents.
The group of revellers was organised by Lousitanea, a eco
business set in one of these traditional hillside villages. This
tourism organisation helps to keep traditional village life alive. They organise walking tours, bread making and
traditional craft events in this stone built village set in the Lousa mountain range. Lousitanea are the only group keeping the
tradition of Entrudo alive in this part of Portugal, with support from the
local tourist board.
There were about
30 in our group (with about a third non Portuguese) and together we boarded a
small coach (paid for by the tourist board) and we visited three local villages. The tracks taking us to these small and
sometimes remote old villages challenged the coach driver who barely left first
gear! Home owners in the villages joined in the merriment, as they served us
wine or sweets or danced along to the accordion.
It’s a great tradition, but its dying out because people
just don’t live in these remote villages anymore, these villages are full of
holiday homes and rich owners from Lisbon and only a handful of year-round residents.
I’m told that the heritage of Entrudo is not written down in
the history books, instead it’s an oral history, passed down from generations
of villagers. It’s become less popular
in recent years, since the Brazilian style of carnival took over in
the larger Portuguese towns. Carnival
celebrates the same point in the religious calendar, but the Brazilian way is
to add scantily clad dancing girls and samba music – all very well in Brazil,
but in February in Central Portugal it’s a bit cold and these poor girls take
on a blue tinge to their skin as they dance through the streets.
So, this Entrudo is taken pretty seriously, you must keep
your mask on in the village, as part of the group you cannot take out your
phone and start taking photos, you are asked to remain in character during your
visit to the village. Posing excessively is allowed though! A group of people
in regular clothes join the group to keep you in check, make the visits run to
time, clear up after you and take photographs.
It’s exhausting!
Hiding behind the mask you start to feel dizzy, dressed up in lots of
layers you quickly get hot. One couple told
us that they take part in something similar in Lisbon during June and that gets
really hot!
After three villages and a lot of noise we head back to the
start and lunch is served, taking off the mask is a relief…you quickly realise
that size does matter and the thinner the cork the lighted the whole thing is
to wear!
It’s a great bonkers tradition that I hope will continue in
these villages. But it needs a community
to keep it going. As more and more of
these old mountain villages become places for summer homes or are abandoned
almost completely these traditions won’t thrive and we’ve all got a part to
play in making sure that does not happen.
Thank you to Amilcar Martins and Goncalo Sousa for the photographs which I have taken from various facebook posts.
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