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This is a festival that differs from the others held in the Madeira Archipelago as it is a festival dedicated to Saint Anthony in the middle of September, when the festivals for this saint take place in June. The reason why this occurs in September is due to the high season of agricultural production in which the offerings of the products of the land are exposed. Every year, throughout the parish, the regent couples made up of a boy and a girl are chosen. They represent their respective places and welcome into their homes the offerings that the inhabitants intend to offer to the Church. In the past, the contribution of a regent would have been in the order of “three hundred and such eggs, two bushels of wheat, fruit and other products”, according to a parish inhabitant, remembering the old days. Each site builds its own bazaar within a structure made of branches and greenery where, after the pilgrimage route between the house of the regent and the bazaar, the products from the land are placed on trays and auctioned off and the proceeds are offered to the Church. There is, however, an organisational committee for this event.

The text of Luísa Gonçalves in the book Traços da Tradição Madeirense [Traces of Madeiran Tradition] reads as follows: “In the past, they came on foot from all corners of the parish, bringing products from the land to be sold in the bazaars during the festival in honour of Saint Anthony. But life is different now. The young ones emigrated and those who stayed bear the burden of age. Therefore, they started resorting to transport by car for part of the route. Since that time, the parish of Cruz do Salão in Ponta do Pargo has become the meeting point. It is from here that the pilgrimage of the trays now departs. A tradition that, they say, is found nowhere else on the island”.

At five o’clock in the afternoon on the day of the festivities, the commotion builds in Cruz do Salão. There are firecrackers that signal the departure of the pilgrimage. The trays are unloaded from the vans and the street is full of men and women, with trays more or less ornamented on their heads, who go to their bazaar accompanied by the music band.

These rectangular trays are made of wood and are full of wheat, a cereal that is abundant in the area. Conical receptacles that in days gone by were filled with sugar are added to these trays. This reminiscence may allude to "sugar loaves" given their shape. Ponta do Pargo is a predominantly agricultural parish, but it did not produce sugar, despite belonging to the Municipality of Calheta, which was a major producer of this “white gold” and which still maintains a mill today. The feast of Saint Anthony was also called the “Feast of Bread, evoking the figure of Saint Anthony as a benefactor offering bread to the poor”, says Father Rui Sousa in the same book. These cones are decorated with prints of Saint Anthony and are made in different sizes. Some trays have one or three cones, being decorated with artificial flowers. In the past, trays came with products from the land that coincided with the crops, including wheat and seeds. Nowadays you can find eggs, fruits, drinks bottles or cakes. The tradition is still alive despite the changing times.

 Source (text and image):

  • madeirafolclore portal by Isabel Gouveia.
  • Book Traços da Tradição Madeirense text by Luísa Gonçalves and photos by Duarte Gomes Editora "O Liberal", April 2012

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