Festa dos Tabuleiros

The small city of Tomar (pop 36,414 in 2021) holds a big party every four years; it's called the Festa dos Tabuleiros. A friend tells us about a hired bus, and we decide to join. The trip from Lisbon takes about an hour and a half, but ends in a dirt field in the village of São Lourenço, where there is something of a traffic jam.

Evidently, there are shuttles to take visitors to the center of Tomar, but the queue looks to be hours-long. Siri says it's a half-hour walk, so we opt for a stroll along the Rio Nabão.

Our previous visits, when the city was practically empty, do not prepare us for the immense crowds. The tour leader expects eight hundred thousand. Following the stream of people advancing from São Lourenço, we arrive at a roundabout at the end of Rua Torres Pinheiro – what had been a totally nondescript intersection is now 'party-central'. The festa involves tabuleiros ('trays', but more like 'baskets', decorated with bread and flowers, worn on one's head), and an over-sized version now stands in the middle of the circle.

The Mata Nacional dos Sete Montes contains a presentation of the tabuleiros. But, when we make it to the gate, there is a fee and a long line to enter. So instead, we find a flowery travessa and struggle toward the center of town, the Praça da República.

 

 

In a small square we find a display that explains the tabuleiros' construction, as well as the carts with the offerings of bread and wine. The crowd is too much, and we decide to try the wider streets along the river.

The view down the Rua Serpa Pinto, the pedestrian mall that feeds the Praça da Republica, is absolutely packed with people.

 

 

 

The side streets are dressed to the nines: paper flowers lay on the pavement, hang from the posts, and drape overhead. We try to enter the Praça, but find ourselves there just at noontime, and it is barricaded. As the bells of the Igreja de São João Baptista ring, a marching band takes a lap around the statue of Gualdim Pais.

 

 

Last time we were here, the church (fifteenth century) was closed for renovations, so after the little parade is past, we take a look inside.

 

 

We have lunch reservations with our tour group at a restaurant on the other side of the Praça, but the roads are blocked and we cannot make it through. Luckily (?), lunch is rescheduled.

 

 

 

At four o'clock, the big parade begins. It opens with marching bands and the pendões (banners) for each freguesia. The boisterous crowd applauds their favorites. After about fifteen minutes, the first of the tabuleiros appear.

 

 

 

 

 

The young ladies and gentlemen with the tabuleiros march by for a good half hour. There is a short pause in the program, and a few other marching bands go by, and then the carts pulled by the enormous oxen – good idea to give the livestock some distance and put them at the end of the line.

What an impressive show, and what an astonishing effort made by the people of Tomar.