Bordeira's Charolas (Faro), the Feast of the Sovereign Mother (Loulé), the medronho distillery, and even the legend of Zorra Berradeira, from Monchique are among the nominees for the 7 Wonders of Popular Culture, in its various categories. In total, the Algarve has 13 nominations
In total, at this stage, the organization of the 7 Wonders of Portugal received 504 applications that were evaluated by the Scientific Council, ending up attributing the nominee seal to 471 (13 of them in the Algarve).
The categories in the competition are: Crafts, Legends and Myths, Parties and Fairs, Music and Dances, Rituals and Customs, Processions and Pilgrimages and Artefacts.
The municipality of Monchique is the most represented with five selected candidates. They are the distillates of Medronho (rituals and customs), the song Maria Latoa (songs and dances) or even the legend of Zorra Berradeira.
In the artefacts category, the scissors chairs, a legacy left in Monchique by the Romans, are also named, as well as the saddlebags (crafts).
Moving on to Loulé, the largest municipality in the Algarve has three nominees. In Processions and Pilgrimages, there is the secular Feast of the Sovereign Mother. The Espiga Festival, which has the ethnographic parade in Salir as one of its highlights every year, is nominated in the Festivals and Fairs category.
Loulé is a land of boilermakers (office that is even being reactivated) and, therefore, it is natural that the copper cataplana appears as one of the nominees, in the handicraft category.
As for Faro, competes with the Festa da Pinha, one of the most traditional and characteristic of the village of Estoi (Feasts and Fairs) and with the centuries-old Charolas of Bordeira (Music and Dances).
In Lagos, the nominees are the Festa da Aldeia da Senhora do Forte (Feasts and Fairs) and the Legend of Aldeia da Senhora do Forte (Legends and Myths).
Finally, in São Brás de Alportel, the Procession of Hallelujah – Florida Torches is also named, like the Sul Informação I had already reported. This popular festival takes place on Easter Sunday, with the famous litany “He is risen as I said. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah,” repeated over and over.
Now, having chosen the nominees, the panel of experts will evaluate the applications and the results will be known on June 7, with a delay of one month, due to the constraints caused by Covid-19.
At this stage, the expert panel, composed of seven elements from each of the 18 districts and two autonomous regions, will elect seven heritages from each region, in a total of 140 regional finalists, who will participate in the respective regional qualifiers.
On June 7th, the next stages of the competition will also be announced, which are currently subject to the evolution of the pandemic.
«We believe that Portugal and the World will overcome this crisis and that in the summer it will be time to make the country resurface, to pull up our unique characteristics, our inexhaustible wonders, our popular culture based on unique experiences and knowledge that have made from Portugal, the nation that we all adore and that foreign tourists are also used to enjoying», says Luís Segadães, president of the 7 Wonders.
«The election of the 7 Wonders of Popular Culture is, therefore, a great opportunity. As profound connoisseurs and promoters of all the heritages that build our national identity, we hope that there will be conditions to return to contact with the general public, in defense of what is ours, which amuses us and which represents our heritage as a people» , concludes.
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