A portuguese christmas

Então é Natal! Or, for those who don't speak portuguese, so this is christmas! I may be brazilian – and the portuguese and I may speak the same language – but Portugal has a different culture and it begins with Santa Claus. In Brazil, we call him Papai Noel, while here he's called Pai Natal. Whatever we call him, Santa has arrived to Covilhã, the small portuguese town I'm living. And with the most wonderful time of the year, comes all kinds of ways to celebrate.

Just so you have an idea, Covilhã had an opening ceremony on december 1st to turn on the christmas lights and for the arrival of Pai Natal (Santa Clause, as I said before). It was also the first day of a program filled with activities called "Christmas with Art", that will take place until the beginning of the next year. I woke up one of these days to the sound of a parade passing my street. They were all dressed like Santa Claus and it was amazing. So, as you can see, they're not playing.

One of the traditions of the opening ceremony is the mega snow cake. And by mega, I mean 60 meters (196 feet). It needed 80 kg of flour, 10 kg of sugar, 15 kg of butter and 400 eggs. It was stuffed with cherovia, a root shaped like a carrot that it's very traditional symbol of their culture. It was delicious – and everyone could eat it! If you were fast enough, of course. At the event, we also watched a Sleeping Beauty performance of the Kayzer Ballet Company and listened to christmas songs, like Oh Holy Night and Jingle Bell Rock, sung by Margarida Geraldes.

The mega snow cake

Since december 1st, there's also a little christmas market downtown called "Mercadinho de Natal" with tents of food, crafts and a kids space. When I went there, I was filled with the christmas spirit. I didn't even care that the town hall forgot to make a playlist and put the song Last Christmas to play on repeat. That song played over and over again since morning till dawn for days! But thank god now they managed to put other christmas songs, including Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You.

Moving on their music choices, in the christmas market you can find some of the portuguese traditions – like filhós, a pastry with sugar and cinnamon that may be roasted or fried. In the market, you can find both ways. One of the tents has a big line because they fry right away so you can eat it still warm. Another christmas food is bolo-rei, or the king cake. The name is a reference to the three kings of the bible that visit Jesus after he was born. It's a fluffy cake mixed with raisins, nuts and candied fruits. You can only find it in Portugal in december, just like filhós.

Filhós being prepared and fried.

Filhós ready to be eaten and make me happy.

A fun fact about this market is that Santa Claus shows up all the time. And it's not the traditional Santa sitting in a chair taking photos. He walks through everyone saying hi. And it's funny to watch the kids asking for gifts. I saw two brothers asking him for something that sounded expensive, and then they went to their mother very happy saying that Santa said he was gonna give it to them. I think she wasn't very pleased by that.

Also, the merchants are very nice and warm. Patrícia is one of them: she sells nuts and candies for € 1.50 a pound (in supermarkets, it's usually € 2.5 up) in her tent, called "Frutos Secos da Beira". She kindly lets me and my friends taste some we never had before and explains to us everything about them. The brazilian nut is also selled in her tent, and that makes me happy because it's delicious and I missed it. If you never had one, I highly recommend you.

Patrícia's tent. She's not in the picture, that's Anubal, also a very nice guy.

If you never had a brazilian nut, you're missing it. It's the one on the right.

Fátima is also a sweetheart. She sells candies and pastries, including brigadeiro, a brazilian sweet. In her tent, named "Doces e Mimos", we can also find a portuguese sweet called queijada, a little cake with cheese. Fatima puts lemon in it and it's a delicious touch. In the christmas market you can also find something I absolutely love: ginjinha. It's a liquor made of ginja, a fruit similar to cherry. It's sweet and they usually sell it in chocolate cups you can eat afterwards.

That's a queijada, a little cheese cake. Fatima's has a lemon touch.

The whole city is filled with a christmas spirit and I love walking on the streets with decorations all over it. Portugal has a very traditional way of celebrating it and I'll tell you more about it soon.

By Isabela Gadelha

A brazilian living in Portugal.

Instagram/Twitter: @belagmelo