Portugal

Fátima: the most famous Portuguese centre of Christian pilgrimage

October is Virgin Mary’s month. In Portugal, it’s time to pay a special visit to Our Lady of Fátima sanctuary, in Cova de Iria (Leiria). There, especially on the 13, we will find Catholics from all over the world celebrating the last appearance of the Virgin Mary in October 1917.

The Three Shepherd Children

According to the Catholic Church, Nossa Senhora de Fátima (Our Lady of Fatima) appeared to three shepherd children on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on May,13 and ending on October,13. The three children were Lúcia Santos and her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto.

Jacinta died in 1920 and Francisco in 1919. The siblings were victims of the great influenza epidemic that swept through Europe in 1918. Sister Lúcia, born in 1907, became a Carmelite nun in a monastery in Coimbra and died six years ago. (more…)

5 interesting facts about Portugal

Here are five little known facts about Portugal sent in by Sandra, our Portuguese contributor. Take five minutes to learn more about this country located in the Iberian Peninsula.

1. The Portuguese Gorreana Tea is Europe’s oldest remaining tea company,dating from 1883.

2. The Portuguese Princess, Catarina de Bragança (25 November 1638 – 31 December 1705), queen consort of Charles II of England (1662-1685), introduced the habit of drinking tea in Britain.

3. The oldest bookstore in the world (1732) is Bertrand in Lisbon (Chiado district).

4. Portugal is the oldest country in Europe with defined frontiers (Alcanizes Treaty,1297) and also the oldest nation-state, since the 5th October 1143.

5. Portugal and England signed the oldest, and still active, diplomatic alliance in the world, (Windsor Treaty, 1386).

 

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Poetry and Music, a Portuguese Liaison
Crowns, flowers and 30 loaves: Festa dos Tabuleiros in Portugal
The man who saved 30,000 refugees

Poetry and music: a Portuguese liaison

Portuguese, also called A Língua de Camões in honour of our greatest poet Luiz Vaz de Camões -author of the famous epic Os Lusíadas (The Lusiads) about the great Portuguese discoveries in the 16th century-, is a language of poets celebrated through music since medieval times.

Modern Portuguese dates from the 16th century and has its origins in Galaico-Português, or Old Portuguese, a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the northwest area of the Iberian Peninsula. Our strong connection between poetry and music dates from the final years of the 12th century until the middle of the 14th century, when Galaico- Português was used for literary purposes in the cantigas d’ amor (male-voiced love lyric), the cantigas d’ amigo (female-voiced love lyric), and the cantigas d’ escarnho e de mal dizer (including a variety of genres from personal invective to social satire, poetic parody and literary debate). The video below is an example of a cantiga d’amigo.

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Crowns, flowers and 30 loaves: Festa dos Tabuleiros in Portugal

The Festa dos Tabuleiros (Festival of the Trays) is one of the most important celebrations in Portugal. It takes place every four years, during the months of June or July, in Tomar, the city of the Templars, located in the centre of Portugal. These celebrations are also known as the Festa do Espírito Santo (Holy Spirit Celebration). I was there for the first and only time in 2007, four months before I came to live in The Netherlands.

Streets of Tomar, decorated for the festival

The festival takes its name from the trays carried during the final procession. It originated during the rule of the Farmer King, Dom Dinis and his wife, Queen Saint Isabel. During their reign the Portuguese borders were defined with Tratado de Alcanices (1297), Portuguese language became the State official language (in 1290), the first Portuguese University was founded and agriculture, culture, the arts and poor people were well protected.

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Always evolving: some languages of the world and where they come from

This month’s collaborative post was inspired by a conversation between some of our contributors about languages and how much they ‘borrow’ words from one another. Malay has words from English, Turkish has words from French, English has words from Hindi, Spanish has words from Arabic. Not to mention the massive way in which European languages have influenced each other.

So here’s a look at the history and foreign influences of some of the languages spoken by PocketCultures contributors around the world.

It’s a long article, so if you’re interested in a particular country use these links: India, UK, France, Canada, Turkey, Spain, Argentina, Costa Rica, Portugal, Malaysia.

India: Hindi, English, Tamil, Marathi and many more!

Languages in India are as varied and complex as the country itself. The 2001 census estimated that there were 29 languages spoken by more than a million native speakers, 122 by more than 10,000!

We have 22 ‘official’ regional languages spoken across the country, but no ‘national language’. Hindi is often mistakenly referred to as the ‘national language’, but the constitution lists it as our ‘principal official language’. Where does Hindi come from? Well, it’s a language which evolved from a dialect spoken in northern India during the Mughal period, was influenced by Persian, and is closest to Urdu – the language today identified with Islam!

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From our contributors: 4 July

Since our contributors around the world often post about their countries on their own blogs, we thought you might be interested to read what they have been writing. So here’s the first in a new series on Blogs of the World where we round-up our favourite contributor posts.

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