Halloween in Portugal

It's not because the country is short of ghosts, witches and skeletons (think bone chapels). Nope, Portugal has plenty of that sort of stuff. What's unusual is that Halloween itself, historically speaking, is rather a late arrival over here.

Trick or treat

You see, for generations, the Portuguese had their own perfectly serviceable way of dealing with the deceased. There was All Saints’ Day, Finados, the visiting of cemeteries, candles, flowers, prayers and, rather more cheerfully, Pão por Deus. This was when small children went from door to door asking for food and treats. In other words, Portugal already had trick-or-treating.

The traditional Pão por Deus takes place on the 1st of November (All Saints’ Day). Children would go around their neighbourhoods carrying little bags or baskets, knocking on doors and asking for “Pão por Deus” (bread for God’s sake). They might indeed receive bread or small cakes, nuts, fruit, chestnuts or even token amounts of money. In some areas they recited verses in return. The tradition is recorded as far back as the 15th century and was associated with charity and respectful remembrance of the dead.

Halloween's modern incarnation is essentially a spectacular piece of Anglo-American cultural export. Costumes, pumpkins, horror films, sweets, parties, haunted houses and children demanding confectionery under threat of unspecified consequences (if denied the spoils) have become the norm. Pão por Deus was a bit more timid. Less The Exorcist and more like benevolence. And there was another significant difference. In traditional Portugal, the period around All Saints and All Souls was fundamentally about remembering the dead. Families visited cemeteries, tidied up resting places, laid fresh flowers and lit candles in quiet contemplation and respectful reverence.

Traditions

So, Portugal has a rather complicated relationship with Halloween. The word Halloween comes from “All Hallows' Eve”, which is the eve of All Saints' Day. The deeper history of the season is connected with Samhain, the Celtic festival marking the end of summer and the beginning of winter. But it's worth avoiding the increasingly fashionable habit of claiming that absolutely everything associated with Halloween is directly descended from one ancient Celtic ceremony. History is rarely that cut & dried. Christian traditions, European folk customs, seasonal festivals and later, popular culture became thoroughly entwined. The Halloween most people recognise in Portugal today, particularly the pumpkins, costumes and “trick-or-treating”, was heavily shaped by Irish migration and then transformed into a gigantic American cultural phenomenon. Portugal merely received the finished product.

Portuguese regions have their own ghosts. One of the fascinating things about Portugal is that there isn't really one national Halloween tradition; there are dozens of local variations. In the Coimbra region, for example, there were traditions involving children carrying hollowed-out pumpkins with holes cut into them to resemble tormented faces. Sounds familiar, right? They sometimes even had a candle inside. Hmmm? Groups with kids went around asking for “Bolinhós! bolinhós!” (little cakes) and chanted verses referring to the dead. All pretty familiar Halloween stuff.

In parts of central Portugal, the custom became known as Dia do Bolinho (small cake day). Elsewhere, one encounters names such as Santoro, Santorinho, Fiéis de Deus amidst plenty of other local variations. The Açores have particularly strong Pão por Deus traditions, where children still go from door to door with decorated baskets or cloth bags to receive their gifts and tasty, sweet treats.

Portugal also had The Magusto, a celebration of chestnuts, bonfires, wine and general autumnal mischief. This is particularly associated with São Martinho but with links to the All Saints period in some regions. The result is that Portugal already possessed an entire suite of autumnal festivals involving fire, food, the dead, children, masks, darkness and all manner of Halloweeny things that go “BUMP” in the night.

Modern Halloween celebrations

Today, Halloween is increasingly visible in Portugal, particularly in cities and tourist spots. Lisbon, Porto, Cascais and the Algarve now host Halloween parties, themed events, children's activities and other commercial attractions. So, the modern Portuguese Halloween really does look increasingly familiar.

So, over here in Portugal, we do indeed have the carved pumpkins, the parties and even the Halloween-themed menus. Green and orange bacalhau, anyone? Yes, we even have haunted attractions and plenty of shops selling enormous quantities of plastic tat which, by the 2nd of November, will mysteriously morph into Christmassy tat. Every self-respecting Chinêsa will have an endless supply of the stuff, all stuffed unceremoniously into tatty cardboard boxes for us all to have a rummage through. And therein lies a great irony. Halloween was once about the mysterious boundary between life and death. Modern Halloween is now much more about whether Pingo Doce or Apolónia have enough miniature Dracula-themed chocolate bars to go around. It's more about keeping body & soul together than it is about mortality.

Commercialisation

So, do you think it’s all become a bit commercialised? Errrrrrm, maybe just a bit? Halloween has become another entry on the annual retail conveyor belt. First we have Valentine's Day, then we have Easter, the summer holidays, Halloween, Black Friday and finally (sigh) Christmas. If we have any spare money left over, that is. But we haven't quite finished with your wallet yet. Far from it. We haven't mentioned the January sales yet.

Yet, blaming commercialisation entirely would be somewhat unfair. Traditions have always changed. Pão por Deus itself evolved. What was once associated with bread, charity, the poor, and remembrance eventually became a children's custom involving cakes, sweets and pocket money. Halloween didn't erode Portuguese traditions, because people are still doing what they've always done. That is, absorbing outside influences, tweaking them a little and eventually, making them their own.

Joviality & mirth

Halloween itself is a perfectly good thing, because if we look closely, no one is actually forgetting what came before. Portugal never needed to import ghosts, as they were always part of the traditional landscape when, at the end of yet another long, hot summer and all that entails, people can still take the melancholy of Autumnal decay and inject it with a tad of joviality and mirth whilst involving the kids. I can think of no better way of embracing the future, because when there are happy kids around, it’s all rather splendid.

There’s something wonderful about embracing the many traditions which surround this time of year. Portugal doesn't need Hollywood to invent spooky stories. We have beautiful villages, castles, abandoned houses, ancient churches, misty mountains, granite cemeteries, medieval streets and enough legends about ghosts, witches and unfortunate souls to keep us all trembling - just a little. Sometimes, the atmosphere can be solemn, intimate and deeply “saudade" but it's always deeply Portuguese.

Halloween was never going to water down any local traditions. It’s all about celebrating traditions that have themselves been celebrated long before any of us arrived. Halloween is all about the here and now. It’s about living and embracing Portugal’s all too short Winter. A few neon green and fluorescent orange Haribo sweets were never going to hurt anything, other than one's Drac-fangs!

"Mwwwoha-ha-ha-haaaa!”