We are getting in to a very special time in the year for many people around the world. Especially for children... Christmas!
Christmas has become a season celebrated worldwide in a almost similar way regardless of language or the Country where we are... Santa Claus, the showy and glittering Christmas Tree, the presents they are globalized elements that make Christmas a celebration that goes beyond the religious tradition.
In spite of everything, in Portugal there are still some traditions that resist the typical Americanization of the season.
Christmas has become a season celebrated worldwide in a almost similar way regardless of language or the Country where we are... Santa Claus, the showy and glittering Christmas Tree, the presents they are globalized elements that make Christmas a celebration that goes beyond the religious tradition.
In spite of everything, in Portugal there are still some traditions that resist the typical Americanization of the season.
In Portugal, for example one of the traditions that resist is the delivery of the presents at midnight and not on the morning of December 25... so all children endure overnight until they hear the sound the twelve strikes and finaly run like crazy to the Christmas tree!
Here there was never the idea that was Santa Claus that would deliver the presents to the little ones, traditionally who gave them was the Baby Jesus.
Santa Claus eventually began to earn his place of prominence, but in more rural areas the elders still mention the "presents of Baby Jesus" and not Santa Claus.
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| The crib (presépio) |
During the night of December 24 takes place a dinner which extends trough out the night with family and sometimes friends, we call it the "consoada", in this supper is served as a main dish, baked cod with potatoes, vegetables and is seasoned with olive oil and vinegar and (if you like the taste) chopped raw garlic and pepper on top! In the north of the country it is more usual to serve the roasted octopus instead of the cod.
After dinner and during the Eve is time to taste all the delicacies and sweets typical of the season, everything from “filhoses”, "azevias", rice pudding, french toast, “sonhos”, “bolo-rei”, scones and much more. Is served port wine (to adults), to help push down all this and anything else that you can swallow! (of curse you can drink whatever you like instead of wine)
The Christmas night extends beyond the opening of presents and when the youngest ones literally “fall sideways” the evening continues until dawn in family conversations between songs and the animation of the season!
A custom that is falling in to disuse, especially in big cities is the way to Midnight Mass (Missa do Galo). In some villages it is still customary to invite the priest responsible by it to go grab a snack at the house of the people who attended the Mass!
Another custom, this one almost forgotten, is to evoking the dead during the supper of the 24th, putting their place at the table, or even making up a doubling supper for them in another room.
On Christmas Day is eaten roasted meats and many different pastries, is a day of celebration.
The costumes, traditional or the gastronomic, change from north to south, but in the end is just another day of... Christmas!
During this month we will place, (as we have been doing) some goodies of the season!
