In Foz an old tradition parades hoping to become heritage and throw all ‘evils’ overboard

Stutters, nervous illnesses, demoniac possessions, and skin conditions. This 24th of August will be the day to throw all evils overboard, to trust in Saint Barthelemy and dive deep in the Praia do Ourigo. In the day the religious cult is celebrated, everything is set so that this tradition, which has united the community of Foz do Douro for decades, is taken to parade around the streets in a traditional display of sentiment. On Sunday, the Cortejo do Traje de Papel starts in Cantareira, going towards the beach for the sea bath that, according to some, is worth as seven.

If you spot Amália Rodrigues, D. Afonso Henriques, as well as the vineyards of Douro or the Torre dos Clérigos parading around Foz, don’t be surprised. Or better yet, be surprised. Be amazed by the about 5 hundred people who put everything they’ve got into the theme that unites the different communities of União de Freguesias de Aldoar, Foz do Douro and Nevogilde, with the purpose of filling the streets – and the sea – with the Cortejo do Traje de Papel, the highlight of the festivities in honour of Saint Barthelemy.

Have you guesses what the theme is? It really is the Tangible and Intangible World Heritage. In the Bairro Social de Aldoar, everything is set: clothes made from newspapers, as the tradition dictates, crafts, baskets, mattocks, cardboard hats. The subtheme – sewed and glued by three pairs of hands alone – is the World Heritage of the cities of Braga and Guimarães.

The residents’ association will take 70 people to the procession, not counting another one other, Esmeralda Mateus. She is the biggest fan of this celebration – all her participation diplomas are on display in the walls of her house, and she never tires of reinforcing how “everything looks so pretty” – where she has poured her heart and soul since the joining of the different parishes allowed Aldoar to participate in the tradition that, in Foz do Douro, has existed since the 19th century.

As for the celebration on Sunday, Esmeralda has called for “everyone” to “cheer for us” and to see the parade displaying “all the work that doesn’t seem like much but that took a great deal of hours” to create, taking “Saturdays and Sundays filled with work until 1 am” and that was brough to life by the hands of “people with the fourth class”.

Months of work are taken by the sea

The tradition will also keep on living next do the Orfeão of Foz do Douro which, this year, will take the parade through Vale do Douro. Fernanda Chalupa has been making props and accessories for weeks – “very laborious” -, while other people have taken up sewing. The president of the institution believes that “the involvement of the community has once been better” and, for that reason, she shares how “bringing schools into this celebration” can be vital for the tradition. “It would help us a lot, it is an opportunity to learn, it would involve the families and the new generations”, she underlines.

Following tradition closely, Fernanda Chalupa will religiously get into the sea “on the morning of the Day of Saint Barthelemy”. Leaving negativity behind, also behind will be “the challenges of the day-to-day. The procession is in the street, everything has passed”, she states.

This is also the reason Ana Catarina Ferreira looks forward to the bath that brings the Cortejo do Traje de Papel to a close.

The group brings to the parade through the streets of Foz the Centro Histórico do Porto, a set sewed by the residents and friends that “come to participate as figurants, they want and like to see themselves a bit more involved”. Here, the task to find those to wear the clothes is a bit more difficult than to get people to put them together, as many have brought “family members to help because they have talent to make props or to paint”.

Ana Catarina Ferreira explains that “we are a big community, but many are not acquainted with the tradition because they have recently moved here so they have no clue what the procession of Saint Barthelemy is or the importance it has for the Foz do Douro”. Little by little, conquests are made and “we are successful”.

A tradition of generosity and pride

Exchanging the fabrics and needles for paper and glue and devising a part of “the procession of my city” was, for Joana Bourbon, more than a challenge, but also a “source of pride, a passion, it has been a beautiful experience”. On the first floor of a building in the União de Freguesias de Aldoar, Foz do Douro e Nevogilde, the incomparable clothes of Amália Rodrigues, Carminho, Mariza or Maria da Fé are gaining shape. The fashion designer created these pieces to “tell the story of Fado through its biggest protagonists”.

There, they are still cutting, sewing, and gluing and Joana highlights how “generous the involvement of the community has been”. For months, a great number of volunteers and fashion students have been working with her, and Joana reinforces how “younger people are starting to get more involved and how they are starting to find it charming to work on this project”.

With 29 years of experience, the designer doesn’t spare any compliments to “the incredible cultural traditions such as this one, which are quite unique” where Portugal stars in but doesn’t often know how to “value and how to build roots”.

Make the community heritage into World Heritage

That is precisely the mission. Other than the theme, making the Cortejo do Traje de Papel of the Saint Barthelemy celebrations Intangible World Heritage is a challenge. A challenge taken up by the União de Freguesias which, along the Spanish municipalities of Mollerusa, Amposta and Güeñes, who are going through something similar, has sent an application to UNESCO.

The president of the Parishes explains how the purpose is, on one hand, to “preserve this tradition” and, on the other, “hopes to give it more recognition and exposure”, “expose it to the world”. “We have identified an opportunity to associate this tradition to an application for Intangible World Heritage, because of its nature and the realisation of its uniqueness”, Tiago Mayan Gonçalves explains.

All this considered, this would broaden the horizons of the tradition, “expand it and involve even more the community in this practice. Bring more communities into this tradition”. This because the president of the union doesn’t doubt that “that’s where the force of it resides, in its communal character”, in the joint belief that, in Foz do Douro, it’s Saint Barthelemy and the bathing in the Praia do Ourigo that symbolizes “renovation, recovery and rebirth for a new year”.

There’s only a few days more until the procession walks through the street, and only one thing worries Esmeralda Mateus, “that D. Afonso Henriques won’t take a bath so to be exhibited” next to some other clothes that will be displayed. “I have told him to put on some shorts to go bathe”, she assured.

The devotion to the saint, the power of the regenerating waters and the love for Foz

In an attempt to truly get to know the celebration in honour of Saint Barthelemy and where the paper costumes come from, talking with Manuel Picarote is essential. One of four brothers, he inherited from his father, Joaquim, hundreds of documents, photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, all mentioning the festivities in Foz do Douro.

“I started going through all these papers, through the numerous boxes that were stored, and I realised we were keeping something important”. There are no doubts.

Marisa Pereira Santos did the same thing. The art historian and researcher of CITEM (Centro de Investigação Transdisciplinar – Cultura, Espaço e Memória) has dedicated herself over the last few years to studying this tradition and explains that “the cult of Saint Bartelemy has been documented in Foz since at least the beginning of the 19th century, where there was already an ancient cult practice to the regenerating power of the waters and of the saint bath”.

The spoken memory and some documentation have brought into light the name of Costa Padeiro, “an old seafarer who”, in the decade of 20 and 30 of the 20th century, “bathed in the Praia do Ourigo, and started playing with kids dresses in paper clothes, entertaining people in the beach towards the end of summer”, inspired in a ritual by French sailors that marked passing of the Equator line.

“The practice was most likely combined with “the already established cult and the practice of regenerating baths by the grace of Saint Barthelemy”, the saint that “relinquishes the demon chained to his feet and, for protection, ends up incarnating in the waters”.

With some long breaks along the way, the first parade which deserved such a name was organised by the community in the 50s. “The mothers would create the clothes at home, initially from newspapers and latter with creped paper”, Marisa Pereira Santos retells, underlining that, “although there is no documented continuity, a tradition was established in the collective memory of the community”.

"A Party is a party. And Saint Barthelemy is Saint Barthelemy”

In 1963, the Picarote family starts getting involved as a sort of organization commission, “joining out of devotion”. This is the moment Manuel, the son, thinks the festivities dedicated to the saint took a turn, as was it the first time he paraded. “They transformed what was something spontaneous done as a joke into a celebration were two or three dozen people and bathers would participate, into something important”, he believes.

To “place the festivities and, above all, Foz on the map”, his father and friends “started knocking on doors to ask for money, old magazines and newspapers” and even “bottles to sell to the scrap dealer to make money”. Even letters were sent to TV shows in Japan to attempt some coverage of the celebrations they hoped to turn into the “party of the city”.

Still wishing to see the return of the involvement of the communities “who have an important history in this tradition and people of value who deserve to be remembered and that are not actively participating today”, Manuel Picarote can’t help but speak about the procession with great emotion.

“The party is the party. Saint Bartelemy is Saint Barthelemy. In a way or another, what matters is that the tradition keeps happening and that this flame keeps burning, allowing for people from Foz, a bigger Foz now, to keep getting involved”, he reinforces.

The procession will start in Jardim das Sobreiras, in Cantareira, at 10 am on Sunday and will end with the “bath that is worth seven”, in the Praia do Ourigo.