Alfama is one of the oldest head-quarters of 
ago:
Islamic, African, Jewish and ‘alfacinhas’ (people of
Nestled in the hillside of Saint Jorge’s Castle,
Alfama remains trapped by the city that runs quickly and noisy outside.
June is the month consecrated to ‘Santo António of .JPG)
loved
to break crockery waterpots to the girls near the lots of fountains that Alfama
had.
All kinds of colourful carnation plants, daisies and
forget-me-nots mixed with paper flowers are hanging on the old windows of the
whole neighbourhood: the homage fills the streets!
Throughout generations and generations groups of
children make colourful small thrones (with five little steps decorated with
earthen pots that contain carnations and sweet basils or coins. On the top
stands the saint).
Thousands of times children take off the saint from
his stairs, cuddling the saint’s bald hair and convincing the passer-by with
"one .jpg)
tostãozinho
(an antique penny coin) to the Saint' António’. Well, euro coin still did not
enter in the tradition!
If you ask «- Is the coin just for the saint?» you
will hear the same reply that has been already given by their grandparents: «-
It is for him, but it’s to buy candies for us». Who does not know that Santatoninho loves children... he even
carries one on the lap…
The sweet odour of the little dishes filled with
‘arroz-doce’ surrounds the visitor… ‘arroz doce’ is a
We can appreciate circles (obtained with a wet cup),
small spots, little squares, circles, little pigeons, hearts with crossed
arrows or not, as the love moods of the cookers... and customers also choose
from their own love moods…
The odour comes to children’s nostrils and the calling
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for a
little coin becomes more vibrant from the mouth of the flocks of little hungry
sparrows.
The time will pass by and these children will be young
single lovers, who dream of having their sweet basil decorated with a pink
paper carnation given by their lovers… the carnations will be red or orange for
the married ones and purple when the sighs of the past still make their hearts
trembled.
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The
sweet basil, the carnation and the little poem written on a cutted paper is
choosen, deeply silencing the passionate hearts. The sweet basil will die in
spite of the caring hands fulfilling the popular saying to water and put it on the moonlight, but the paper carnation will
tenderly kept until losing the colour and the brightness of the purpurin
powder.
On the top of wooden platforms men and women pointing
to the hamper, are shouting "Who wants fat sardine, made of silver
(scales)"?
Meanwhile they remain shacking the live coals of the
small crockery cookers with a straw fun, coal needs air...
The idlers do not resist: in a oily dripping bread or
on a scalding plate with .JPG)
potatoes,
raw tomatoes and cucumbers, people chew roasted sardines ‘vivas da costa’
(Portuguese popular expression: the direct translation can be "lives from
the Ocean coast", meaning they arrive from the coast still alive, proving
the perfect conditions of their meat) while drinking a "copito de
três" (another popular expression; is a small glass that measures three
fingers high and it is served overflowing).
It’s Saint António’s night; we must eat, drink and
breathe the odours in order to awake our five senses, to dance and to fall in
love...
Around three or four o’clock in the morning people
always need a calm place, a "Retiro" for the poor crawled feet.
These places are covered by odorific plants and inside
there are wooden benches and tables with towels painted in blue, red or green
little squares.
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"Come
to Alfama, all of you" says touched Mr. António Pipi of the Grilled
Sardines that for seventy and four years makes this party on his «Retiro»
nestled together to the Escadinhas de S. Miguel.
The benches are being hammered; the balloons are
enlightened, putting the best colours to Alfama with its arcs of paper and
dreams joins our hearts in this magical night...
Text and photos by Cremilde Barreiros;
Bandstands drawings by Mr.
Pipi de Alfama.