It’s Festa time again. This time it’s the festa of St. Amaro. 
He is our village patron saint and every year the village sends out a group of men and women to collect donations door-to-door to help pay for the festivities. Starting early in the morning 8am Sunday morning the peace shattering sound of what sounds like cannons echoing around the hills of Penela, Espinhal and Lamas. It is in fact loud rockets which are fired high into the air to alert people that there is a festa taking place. These loud bangs carry on throughout the week of the festa.
At 11am we started to hear the explosions coming closer to our house although we could not see any one we could also hear the pipe and drum band coming up the hill getting louder and louder. Their jolly tune echoing like the rockets. Eventually , sweating profusely they sat under a tree near our gate, drank a fortifying glass of wine and started to play again in 34 degree heat!.
Here is a short video so that you can hear the sound the pipe and drum band makes as they walk through the village.
When you give a donation to the festa you are joining part of the fun and tradition of your village. Many foreigners don’t know what to give they are afraid of giving too much or too little and offending people. The simplest way to decide what to give is to have a look at the list of people who have already given. The amount they have given is written down donation by donation. 15 to 20 Euros will be plenty and well appreciated. You may even have a rocket set off at your gate to let everyone in the village know you have made a donation. Some villages hand out little token gifts when you give a donation. This year we were given a soup bowl, embossed with a picture of the Saint.
A great deal of organization and work goes into the festas. Local village women and girls meet up to make the paper flowers and other decorations which are strung up from lamppost, houses, and trees around the village roads. In some villages where the inhabitants are getting old, plastic tapes are used instead of labor intensive homemade bunting (we have seen these with “danger electricity” written on them. These tapes are supposed to be buried above high voltage cables underground !
The festa will go on for 3 days from Friday to Sunday. There are fun and games, and of course wine and food stalls. Music is provided by local bands some of which are famous on the festa circuit. The music always starts late and is far louder than most people can bear. The whole village will be kept awake by the loud music all night long, often until 3 of 4 am and if you love dancing this is the place to be.
Santo Amaro is a lovely village in the council of Penela. We have a great deal of cheap property available in Penela and Central Portugal, so feel free to take the time to check it out.
Tags: festa, Penela, property in central portugal, santo amaro
