Holy Spirit

The celebrations of the Holy Spirit

Introduced by settlers, as was common in continental Portugal since the reign of Queen Santa Isabel (around 1270-1336) that established the festival of the Holy Spirit remains as one of the manifestations of religiosity of the Azores.

With time, however, they made changes in island to island, while maintaining the key aspects related to the worship of the Holy Spirit and the distribution of food ritual, an expression of love that was in its origin. Changes that, in Flores, are also in detail, between the north and south of the island.

The celebrations are carried out in two phases. Domingas or the first week, in which the crown or crowns – symbols of the Holy Spirit – are exposed in the home of the “emperor” or the “Empire” – also called the “Home of the Holy Spirit” – and held religious ceremonies that include transport in the ritual procession of crowns to the church and their return.

In this period may be made the “dinner of boiled”, a collective meal-based “soup of the Holy Spirit,” with the distribution of cuts of meat and bread wheat neat places chosen by the “emperor.” Most of these “dinners” held during the summer, when they visit the island for the migrants living in other countries.

The second phase – the Empire – component is a trail that leads luzidio, on Sunday Pentacostas or Trinidad, the crowns of the “House of the Holy Spirit” and return to church with the presence of a Philharmonie and dozens of girls dressed in white, the ritual that follows the distribution of beef and neat, and after a happy camp.

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