To mark the night of the birth of the Full Moon in Spring, against the backdrop of the megalithic tomb of Santa Rita, near Vila Real de Santo António, is the proposal of the Research and Information Center of the Heritage of Cacela for Friday night, day April 6th.
"Did you know that there is clear evidence that many of the megalithic monuments are oriented towards the birth of the Full Moon following the Spring Equinox?"
"Did you know that in the megaliths, during prehistory, this moment of the ritual calendar associated with the renewal of nature and the resumption of a new cycle of birth-death-rebirth would be celebrated?"
“I knew that Easter, which marks the death and resurrection of Christ, marked on the Sunday following the spring full moon, follows on from these ancient celebrations of the Spring Equinox?”
It is from these questions that the activity scheduled for next Friday will be structured. Recent archaeological excavations, promoted by the Municipality of Vila Real de Santo António in 2007 and 2008, in the prehistoric tomb of Santa Rita, the best preserved of those known in the Cacela area, have revealed a unique monument of high heritage and historical value 5 thousand years old, consisting of a burial chamber accessed by a long corridor.
Its eastward orientation, towards the horizon where the main stars (the sun, moon and stars) emerge, reveals the celebration of a cosmic order that regulates the cycles of birth, death and rebirth of nature and man himself.
It is in this millenary setting around the megalithic tomb – a place of worship where the memory of the ancestors is kept -, located in the vicinity of the historic village of Santa Rita, a few kilometers from Vila Real de Santo António, which, 5 thousand years later, became will bring the participants together in this original activity. The meeting point will be in the village of Santa Rita at 19:30, followed by a walk to the tomb, about one kilometer, with the birth of the Moon scheduled for 20:20.
Next to the megalithic tomb, various activities will take place. One of them will be the photographic record of the rising of the moon and the setting of the sun from the megalithic tomb of Santa Rita and therefore participants must bring a camera or cell phone with camera.
The registered images must define a sequence of photographs, a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 10. Afterwards, you must download them, in real time or in the 5 days following the event, through your Facebook, creating an album with the title “your name_Lua spring at the megalithic tomb of Santa Rita”, joining and sharing it in the group “Astros, megalithism and landscape” administered by CIIP Cacela.
The photographs will be available for comments and the three best images and sequences will be selected.
Another activity will be the short conversations around the Moon, megalithism and landscape, with archaeologists Catarina Oliveira and Nuno Inácio, among others…
There will also be a food tasting around the campfire, and for that, you'll need to take a meal and a blanket for a picnic, as well as a round of tales about the Moon, hosted by a storyteller.
Don't forget to bring warm clothes, stories and tales about the Moon to share with those present, and a flashlight to guide you back to the village.
For more information:
Cacela Heritage Research and Information Center
Municipality of Vila Real de Santo António
Tel./Fax: 281 952 600
Email: [email protected]
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