Mainly religious in nature, local Azorean festivals often consist of pilgrimage to some church or chapel, involving processions of men, women and children in traditional costume and accompanied by generally restrained displays of folk music and dancing.
The one outstanding festival, celebrated in all the islands, is the Festa do Espirito Santo (Feast of the Holy Spirit). The origins of this festival are obscure, but there’s no doubting its deep significance to the islanders. Wherever you go in the Azores there are scores of little imperios or chapels honouring the Holy Spirit, visited by pilgrims during the Espirito Santo celebrations. These are held at different times in different islands, anywhere between Whit Sunday (fifth Sunday after Easter) and the end of August, beginning with a spectacular ceremony in Ponta Delgada (São Miguel). The focus of this ceremony is the Convento da Esperanca and much venerated image of Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagros Of the Miracles’. The statue is kept semi-veiled in the convent for 364 days a year, only seeing the light of day on this one occasion, when it is dressed in fine cloth and jewels, decorated with flowers and displayed to the thousands of assembled pilgrims. Ponta Delgada is suitably festooned with illuminations and bunting, and the streets are covered with flower carpets.
Flower carpets are a feature of several festivals, notably for the Procissdo dos Enfermos (Procession of the Sick) in Furnas, São Miguel. Pine needles and azalea blossoms are packed tightly into wooden frames so as to leave a floral design on the road when the frames are lifted. Then a long procession winds through the town, the priest and his entourage following the colourful trail to the homes of the ill and infirm to bless them.
Of quite a different nature are the bloodless bullfights of Terceira, held throughout the summer months. Bulls are raised especially for baiting, noble black animals dotting the pastures of the island, and the choosing of the best bulls to be entered for a tourada is accompanied by great festivity. Families gather in the fields for boozy picnics and general merrymaking while the experts auction off the chosen sacrificial victims. There are two types of tourada, the typical Portuguese bullfight in which young men jump into the ring to display their courage (but not to kill the beast), and the tourada a corda in which the bull has a rope round its neck, six men hang onto the rope for dear life while it races through the streets, pursuing the show-offs who prod it with sticks, umbrellas, or whatever comes to hand.
One other major festival is the Semana do Mar (Week of the Sea) held every August in Horta, Faial, when yachtsmen from all over the Atlantic congregate for sailing regattas round the islands.
