A letter from our correspondent
Yuko Costa Santos
Porto's Early Summer Night's Dream:Festa do Sao Joao
Summer in the city of Porto is always ushered in by the St. John Festival. I'd like to write about this festival, which takes place in Porto over two days in June.
The St. John Festival is called Festa do Sao Joao in Portuguese ("sao" means "saint"). As I mentioned in my last article, it is commonly believed that "while Lisbon plays and Braga prays, Porto works." However, the feast of St. John's Eve on June 23 undoubtedly turns the hardworking Porto citizens into revellers.
The festivities are put on at Porto city's old district, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the Ribeira area along the river Douro. On the night of St. John's Eve, there is a spectacular firework display over the Dom Luis I bridge. The Ribeira is packed with people, and the festivities continue until the dawn.
Portuguese cities have their own patron saints: for example, Lisbon's is St. Anthony (Santo Antonio) and Porto's is St. John (Sao Joao). Sao Joao is the Portuguese name for John the Baptist, one of Europe's most celebrated saints. On June 24, the Saint's birthday is celebrated. This day is not a national holiday, but is a city holiday for Porto.
The three essential items of the festival are a plastic hammer, a flowering leek and a kind of sweet basil called manjerico. After around ten o'clock at night, men and women of all ages can be found everywhere, thronging the streets with large or small plastic hammers in their hands. On this day, anyone is free to strike anyone else on the head with their plastic hammer, without repercussions.
Cafes and souvenir shops at Ribeira Square. Many stalls are put up for the festival.
Grilled sardine smoke fills alleyways at Ribeira. Many people are enjoying the sardines.
Festival-goers young and old, holding plastic hammers
A plastic hammer with a pipe tip
People also bash each other on the head with a long- stemmed leek, or alho
porro in Portuguese. Locals originally used this plant as the main hitting
implement, but these days the role of the leek is usually taken by a soft
plastic hammer. Alho porro is said to be a ward against evil.
Manjerico is a plant with a unique scent that comes into blossom at this
time of year. People enjoy smelling it as if they were scooping up the
scent with their hands.
There is another essential part of the festival: grilled sardine, which comes into season at this time. Without this sardine, the festivities would not be complete. On the evening of June 23, around dinner time, all over the town people grill sardines ? not only at restaurants or in houses, but everywhere even in the streets. The price of the normally cheap fish is doubled or even tripled during the festival.
Although the smell from the fish creates a far from romantic atmosphere, grilled sardines and the famous northern wine, vinho verde are a perfect match!
At midnight, when the firework display finishes, the crowd move, singing and dancing their way from Ribeira up to Foz on the Atlantic coast. Here they wait for the sunrise, and young people take an early morning bath. Folklore says that bathing in the Atlantic Ocean at dawn on the day of the Sao Joao Festival gives protection against evil. During the festival, many people get together as couples, which makes me think that this is truly an "Early Summer Night's Dream" in Porto. The end of the Sao Joao Festival marks the beginning of high summer in the city.
Grilled sardines. During the festival, they cost double or triple their normal price.
A plastic hammer with a pipe tip
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