Magusto

November, 2013-15

    Hello again :) . I know I've not written for some time, but unfortunately some unforeseen happened, but now I'm back.

    So as a first post this month, I decided to write, not over an actual trip, but on a Portuguese tradition that always happens in November, especially on the 11th: the Magusto.

    I will explain to you a little bit of tradition: the magusto is a popular celebration where groups of friends and families gather around a bonfire to roast chestnuts to eat, accompanied by jeropiga, piquette or wine. They make up games such as jumping the fire and get each otherers dirty, with the ashes (so it is not at all advisable to use white clothes, believe me).

   The magusto is celebrated on the day of St. Martin, November 11, but it is common to make it throughout the month of November. This is associated with a legend, which says that a Roman soldier, named Martin of Tours when passing on horseback by a nearly naked beggar, as he had nothing to give, cut his cloak in half with his sword. It was a rainy day and According to legend at the time he gave one half to the beggar, it stopped raining and the sky was clear and a sunny summer flooded the land with light and heat. It is said that God, so that men would not forget such act of kindness, every year at this same time, ceases for a few days the cold weather and the sky and the earth are blessed with a warm sun, deriving hence the expression "Summer of St. Martin".

    Is customary at this time to participate in the famous Road of the Chestnut, which takes place in a quiet and picturesque village, Alcongosta, which begins with a breakfast, preparing for a hike through the Serra da Gardunha, ending with a lunch and the beautiful magusto.

I've done it all :D