Festa dos Tabuleiros
Every four years, TOMAR celebrates the ‘Festa dos Tabuleiros’ ( Festival of Trays). The last Festival held in 2007 attracted hundreds of thousand visitors to TOMAR from all over the world.
The 2011 Festa will be held from 2nd -11th July.
The Festa dos Tabuleiros is an ancient tradition of the city, which dates back to the 14th Century, when queen Isabel founded the brotherhood of the Holy Spirit . It originally began in a little village called Carregueiros. The Festival lasts for 5 days and there is a lot of Music dancing and fireworks in the city, during this time. The streets are decorated with thousands of paper flowers and the festival culminates with the procession of the ‘Tabuleiro’ ( Trays ) on the last day. The parade consists of around 400 young women dressed completely in white, escorted by men in black trousers, white shirts and Red ties. The women carry the ‘Tabuleiro’ on their heads. It is very heavy, up to 15kg, and consists of 30 loaves of bread, in rows, entwined with leaves and decorated with paper flowers. At the top of the ‘Tabuleiro’, sits a crown which normally contains a white dove, to symbolise the holy spirit.
The day after the procession, bread, wine and beef are given to the local ‘needy’ people following Queen Isabel’s command to ‘give bread to the poor’
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