The men walk in small groups of 12 to 14 carrying flower torches. We noticed that some of the groups had coordinated in their style of dress and torch, whilst others appeared to have taken more of an individual approach. Every few metres the procession stopped as one or more groups raised their torches and chanted three hallelujahs, every chant was in response to one of their number shouting ‘Ressuscitou como disse!’, although a couple of times it did sound like they were saying something else!
The entire 2km length of the procession route is covered in a carpet of wild flowers and fennel. It smelt as good as it looked! I wasn’t surprised to learn that over a hundred volunteers are involved in creating this carpet which requires around 3 tonnes of flowers and greenery.
The scale and number of torches as well as the amount of detail on many of them was quite incredible. There were simple torches, huge glorious bunches, geometric sculptures, ones with cork, with eggs and even bumble bees. I couldn’t stop taking photographs of these works of art, hence the rather large galleries above and below!
It was such a beautiful and happy procession, a wonderful way to spend Easter Sunday. I do hope you have also had a Happy Easter and to finish here’s another a video of the chanting. If you are still with me after scrolling through all these photographs, then do watch it. It’s only 9 seconds long!