Castelo De Vide

As well as having Marvao in walking distance from our site we were also only a 20 minute drive from the much larger town called Castelo De Vide, another place steeped in history and with a castle (hence the name!).

It’s a great place to explore any time of year but over the Easter weekend they have some extraordinary traditions, so we made a couple of trips to see them.

The town had a whole programme of events during Holy Week and the following weekend and although they were centred around the Christian celebration of Easter there were lots of other elements to it as well. All the local restaurants put on a special menu of regional dishes, there was a tennis tournament for children, the tourist office organised a 10Km ramble through the countryside and so on.

We went to see two of the events – the first was the blessing of the sheep and goats on Easter Saturday. An age-old tradition – local farmers bring one or two of their flock to the church for a blessing – they turn up in all sorts of vehicles and the priest goes around splashing holy water on them all. It was fascinating to watch - the only sad part being the farmer who turned up on the tricycle in the picture below with two sheep in the back, struggled in the pouring rain to get his vehicle up the kerb onto the square where the other farmers were, only to discover that he’d missed it – he looked devastated.

I might be wrong but I suspect he hadn’t put his clocks forward the weekend before – this is a very rural area and he would only realise the next time he came into town.

After the blessing of the sheep and goats we stayed on to see the reconstruction of an eighteenth century market with locals all dressed in traditional costumes and had chickens and rabbits in baskets. Bunches of herbs, home made cakes and honey, flowers picked from their gardens, eggs and cheeses.

The second event was the Easter Sunday procession. This was a strange combination of solemnity and celebration. All those taking part in the parade – and every organisation in the town was represented – marched in a fairly formal manner, but at the same time the church bells were ringing out a celebratory peal.

The procession did a lap of the town and ended at the church where everyone went in to celebrate Mass together.

There was a “whole-town” feel to it which was very moving.