Pilot Report

Lisbon, Portugal is a festive city celebrating Catholic saints Portugal’s feasts and holidays year round. Tourists almost always are bound to encounter a street carnival of some sort while on vacation in this historic city. The, hands down, most festive time of the year to visit is June 12th and 13th for the feast of Santo Antonio, or Saint Anthony.

Santo Antonio, the patron saint of Lisbon, is most popularly known as the keeper of lost things, but in Portugal he is known as the saint of marriages, believe that he during his life time helped council marriages. Yearly in Lisbon, since the 1950′s, lucky young couples receive the blessing of Saint Anthony. They are married on June 13th in a group wedding ceremony called “Santo Casamenteiro”, at the Se Cathedral in the Alfama district surrounded by festivities. The traditions surrounding this feast have evolved over the centuries from celebrated weddings to full festivals including parades and street vendors.

Starting roughly at 9:30 pm, the evening festivities kick off with a parade, the Marchas Populares. This parade starts at Marques de Pombal square and meanders down Avenida da Liberdade, a main thoroughfare, to end in Rossio Plaza. All of the local neighborhoods have been competing in float and celebration contests since the 1930′s, despite the tradition having begun in the 1800′s, so no matter where you are in Lisbon you are bound to get caught up in the Feast of Saint Antonio. If you stay out to see the end of the Marchas Populares, about midnight, you probably plan to be out all night because the streets become so packed with revelers that it’s practically impossible to wade across the street until dawn. If you have elected to stay in a Lisbon hotel during the celebration it is definitely advisable to party close to your hotel and book well in advance for the largest summer festival in Europe.

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