Festas da Cabra e do Canhoto
On October, 31, the village of Cidões, up in the mountains, celebrates the Festas da Cabra e do Canhoto (Feasts of the Goat and the Devil), that marks the beginning of the Winter (or Dark Season) Feasts in Northern Portugal.
Among the music and the festivities, a village elder (representing a druid) makes the traditional queimada (an alcoholic beverage made with fire. Queimada means burned) while summoning the devil.
At midnight young men from the village bring the devil to be burned as an effigy.
Everybody eats roasted goat (also a symbol of the devil), that has been cooked by the same guy for the past 30 years.
Other Halloween and winter traditions from Northern Portugal:
Coco
Caretos: “God and the Devil are incompatible everywhere, except in Portugal.”
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