Santo Aleixo da Restauração village, Alentejo - The Tomina Festivities - "Largada de touros" - The 28th of August 2016

My experience as a first time Tomina Festivities onlooker ended with a "largada de touros", which is a bullfighting related tradition still carried out in many Portuguese and Latin American villages.

It basically means having wild bulls run about freely in the streets of a given village, though confined to delimited areas. Barriers (normally trucks) are positioned at strategic points and therefore determine the running track of the animals.

Young men and courageous onlookers take to the streets sometimes to call out the bulls and become bullfighters for a few moments.

The "largada de touros" in Santo Aleixo da Restauração was confined to a rather limited area of just a few streets and included one bull and two cows.

Problematic as it may seem for animal rights defenders, these people love animals and wouldn't deliberately harm them, I believe ... it's just another tradition and traditions around there are to be preserved

Another family gathering, this time at Misi's set the tone for this experience of mine. Apart from having felt very welcome despite being an outsider I was  also able to immerse myself into century old traditions and get to know a little bit more about my own country. 

Santo Aleixo da Restauração village, Alentejo - The Tomina Festivities - The fireworks display - The 28th of August 2016

I was particularly tired by the end of the day and despite wanting to see the fireworks display, which in a sense would be the culminating moment of such an eventful day and one that would be accounted for in regards to the commitment of the yearly "festeiros", I was convinced I wouldn't be able to watch it, especially because we had been told it would start at one in the morning.

My boss, his wife and I sat talking for a long while, as none of us really wanted to do without such a"treat" ...We were fortunate enough though because for some sort of unknown reason the colourful and rather noisy show of light started earlier and we watched it through from the patio in absolute delight. 

I must confess I was impressed with such a memorable display of fireworks ...  but more so when I was getting ready to go to bed and briefly thought back and summarised the whole experience of the day.


 I couldn't help but feel honoured to have been invited over so as to be able to acnowledge and effectively witness such rich and culturally interesting religious-associated events ...

and

  

Santo Aleixo da Restauração village, Alentejo - The Tomina Festivities - The procession - The 27th of August 2016

(...)

Soon after the last handing out of the guidons and the return of the statue of Saint Anthony to the church we gathered outside the Churchyard with the other members of the family I was staying at. I soon noticed that families in Alentejo have a rather strong family bond and often do things together, especially during the Summer holiday period, which is something most people who live in the cities don't relish any more.

Because we had been invited over for lunch Misi, the children and I decided to venture into some of the side pathways and narrow streets along the temporarily dry river that runs through the village. So as to fully understand what life in the village used to be Misi, who was born and brought up in the village shared some of her incredible childhood stories with me as she revisited  some of the places on the way.  

Once I got back "home" after lunch I had to lie down for a while. The heat was almost unbearable and the idea of having to follow the procession through the village streets some time later was beginning to worry me because it was more than obvious that the heat would most probably interfere with my willingness to do so. 

The Church bells announced the event and soon Misi, the children and I took to the streets in some of our best clothes, as in accordance with the local "rituals". Men walked behind the brass band musicians, whilst the women and children took their position in the procession either right behind the statues of the Saints and the guidons or on the sides. I would later find out (after having accidently perverted the course of things) that men and women are not supposed to mingle.

Wide open doors and the best bedcovers hanging from the open windows or balconies are included in the list of rituals to be followed and in that respect not much different from some rituals which used to be followed over the Easter period in some of the Northern cities of Portugal, at least some fifty years ago.

The Church is the "heart" of the festivities once every event therewith associated seemed to either start or end at its yard or even inside it. As people chanted and prayed together in the church I saw quite a few women getting emotional, which didn't surprise me once the whole sequencing led to a natural crescendo.