On The Go Snaps
Summer is upon us.
Just a sunny Sunday. Snaps from earlier today on the South Bank.
Ride back home…
Yesterday’s forgotten snap
Sabes que estás no centro de Espanha quando entras no wallpaper do Windows XP
Today’s mobile snaps.
<img src=“https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/33187/2024/7ec05e4e0e.jpg" width=“337” height=“600” alt=““holocausto mental” painted on a ship “>
Not the Easter day photo you might be expecting…
Spring gives way to Winter…
Details from today.
Feels good to get to my commute snaps after a trip, even if a rather short one. Somehow is the reminder I’m back to the routine, a good one.
In a territory that gets emptier each year, where traditions slowly dwindle, every one of those that still thrives, or is even recovered by people that are not willing to give up yet, feels like a sign a hope that not all is lost. Really happy to finally see this red mask back to the streets of Vale de Porco, hoping to be able to see it again and again in the upcoming years.
One of the most beautiful masks of the winter traditions of Trás-Os-Montes is also one of the most challenging to photograph.. The single masked figure is constantly running from door to door, with very few breaks, and always surrounded by men who guide him through the streets, because of the very limited visibility of the heavy mask. Except when there’s something in the costume that needs some urgent repair.
The fog that has been the norm throughout Trás-Os-Montes this end of year.
Someone once told me at Constantim that the problem isn’t finding people to dance at each front door of the village, is having someone that actually opens the door…
All these Winter Solstice rituals are very different but have one thing in common, at least here in Portugal, there’s always one or more characters that go to each house, where who lives there welcomes them (and their entourage) and celebrate together. If those doors remain shut, which is more and more common, then all this becomes just another parade.
The two kinds of roads you get at Trás-Os-Montes.
Galhofa. Wrestling on top of straw in the barns of Trás-Os-Montes, where showing one’s strength goes hand in hand with local rivalries. Because not everything related with winter solstice has to do with masks.
Yesterday, when I wrote about masks becoming less important to me as I go more often to these masked traditions, this is a bit why: the joy of celebration, the sharing of an identity, those were subtle things I was referring to. The kind of things that actually drive me more to go there than just the mistery of the masks and costumes.
Not on purpose, but today the photo I picked from today’s visit to Grijó de Parada was more in tune to that.
I often tell everyone that the more I go to masked traditions, at least in this corner of Europe, the less important the mask and the costume feels to me. It still is, a lot, don’t get me wrong, but there are so many other subtle things that it feels not fair to look only at that one.
But today, as I quickly browsed through my pictures from my return to Ousilhão, one that caught my eye was one where the mask is the main character.
I’d love to be more consistent, but things aren’t as linear as that 😁
Time of the year to take the Christmas tree from the basement, turn on the lights and count the days to feast around the table.
