Carnival In Torres Vedras

[sabugo]

Hello everyone. Like I said in the shoutbox, here I am writing about what Carnival in my home town.

Most of you know Carnival in its Brazilian form, with Samba and naked women and all that. Well, there are some similarities between the two, but there are also some differences. I should tell you right away that some of the things I'm going to write about might freak you out, so consider yourselves warned. Believe me on this one.

So, as some of you know, I live in a small town in Portugal called Torres Vedras. It has a population of around 35,000, but if you add all the neighbouring villages it adds up to around 70,000. But not everything is small, during Carnival we receive as many as 250,000 people in a four day span, so you can imagine the impact it has on our local economy. A lot of what is done during the year by the city and other businesses relates to Carnival and its profits.

In Brazil you see the aformentioned naked ladies because it's summer time there. Here it's winter, so the weather is much, much colder than say Rio de Janeiro.

In other Portuguese cities they adopted a lot of the Brazilian culture, inviting over their soap opera stars to make appearences, dancing to samba and dressing their poor women in the same kind of clothes they wear in Brazil. Of course in Portugal they are freezing their butts off. In Torres Vedras we have a slogan: "Carnaval mais português de Portugal", which roughly translates to "Most Portuguese Carnival", meaning we don't invite brazilian stars over and we don't samba. However, brazilian music is played here, along with our own Carnival music, and other stuff comparable to Weird Al's music.

On to the freaky part (I have warned you. I really have):

So, I bet you would never believe what our thing is here. Our very own tradition is... cross-dressing!
That's right...Men dress like women for these four days. And it's not gay. Almost every guy does this sort of weirdness in Carnival. No shaved legs, but a lot of make-up, dresses, huge fake boobs and wigs. We even have a Carnival royal family, which of course has two men as a couple. One is the king, the other the queen, but really it's two queens...(They are both married with children btw!)

Let me say right away that neither me, my brother or my dad have ever done such a thing. I have never felt inclined to do it, and it might have something to do with my war-veteran, autopsy-describer at the dinner table dad saying:
- If any of you two ever pull something like this, you might as well start sleeping outside with the dogs. Come to think of it, it's not the dogs fault, just don't come home.

I have a fun dad, huh?

Anyway, one of my brothers in law is very much into this and always dresses as a 'gorgeous' lady. He's had his picture in the paper and all. On saturday night I ran into him and my niece, both dressed as spanish flamenco dancers.

We have a name for guys who cross-dress, 'Matrafona'.

But not all is about guys letting their inner-Liberaces come out for four days. In fact that is a very little part of it.
Carnival is the time of the year in which we all become equal. There are statues around town depicting several people, from politicians - local and national, sports personalities, artists,etc. We make fun of everybody, and I mean everybody. From Cristiano Ronaldo to abusing priests, corrupt politicians, etc. Every year they place a monument in the town center depicting all that what went on during the previous year.
Remember the 'Je suis charlie' signs?
Well, we have been charliying everyone for almost 100 years.

Every single person dresses in costume for Carnival. As a kid you go as a cowboy or a ninja or something like that, but I have really found myself around 10 years ago. For four days I dress as a bunny rabbit. (Is this freaky?!) I have reasons for it:
- The fur keeps me warm
- I can wear clothes with pockets for my wallet and keys underneath
- It provided memorable and classy lines when talking to women such as 'Wanna go the bunny thing?' (To everyone who has daughers, my apologies) (also, can you imagine a 19 year old me getting a yes?)

My wife dresses as a carrot or a squirrel, so its a nice combination.

You guys can imagine all the partying done around here for these four days. As soon as it's over people start saying 'I can't believe we have to wait a year until we do this again!'

The streets are crowded, people are drinking, talking to each other, to friends, to strangers, to the mayor, the chief of police, to whoever. We are all equal, we all make fun of ourselves, of each other and we drink.
We go from one square to another, following the music, some friend or looking for a toilet. We drink some more.
We see this friend we hadn't seen in 7 or 8 years and start talking and it lasts two hours. Sometimes we reconnect, others you don't see that friend again for another 7 or 8 Carnivals.
We go to the food trucks for a 3 dollar burger and we drink some more (beer ir roughly 1 dollar).
We walk around and spend some time talking with old teachers, neighbours and become best friends in the whole world with some strangers. We comment on other peoples costumes, they do the same.
We head to the farmers market for a stew sandwich and whatever drink they're serving.
It's 7 am so we all go the the one disco in town, where I once fell asleep while standing, dancing and talking to two of my older friends.
We come back at noon, crash for a few hours and do it all over again the next day.

And outside Carnival and maybe New Year's eve, I don't even drink.

There is a lot more to write about, a lot more about our traditions but I've written so much I honestly have no idea where to go next! This year I even attended a Carnival wedding, where everyone showed up in costume! How crazy and fun is that?

I hope it's not too long to read, and that if you do read it you don't get too freaked out.
I'll share some of my Carnival stories in other posts

[Yankee4Life]

Sabugo all I can is that after I read this that this Carnival thing sounds like FUN.

A few other things too:

Your father sounds like a funny guy. There's no way I'd cross dress either. I consider cross-dressing as bad as wearing Red Sox gear.

Four days, lots of fun and people enjoying themselves. What a wonderful thing to look forward too. Never would happen in this country.

[DaSteelerz]

Four days, lots of fun and people enjoying themselves. What a wonderful thing to look forward too. Never would happen in this country.

Really? Mardi Gras is actually today FYI.. Lol

Sabugo it sounds amazing. Sounds like you truly had a good time. I would love to experience this some day! I wouldn't look great in drag but I would maybe dress up in a funny outfit. Nice story!

[Yankee4Life]

Really? Mardi Gras is actually today FYI.. Lol

Hey, I know what Mardi Gras is down in New Orleans but the he described it it was something that is unique to wear he lives. Mardi Gras may sound similar but there are differences so maybe I should have just said that from the beginning. Despite this mix-up I am sure Sabugo still understood what I meant and when he finally passes out tonight he can come back here and tell us more about this thing.

[DaSteelerz]

Hey, I know what Mardi Gras is down in New Orleans but the he described it it was something that is unique to wear he lives. Mardi Gras may sound similar but there are differences so maybe I should have just said that from the beginning. Despite this mix-up I am sure Sabugo still understood what I meant and when he finally passes out tonight he can come back here and tell us more about this thing.

I was pointing out the irony that saying "never would happen in this country" was pessimistic and actually happening as we speak. I do see it as a unique thing too - don't me wrong. I loved the quote "Carnaval mais portugues de Portugal".

[Yankee4Life]

Oh yeah, sure. I see what you mean.