Yeah, yeah, yeah! O Castelo é que é!

Por causa de todo o secretismo em torno das marchas populares, ainda não tinha podido mostrar as fotos que tirei quando há umas semanas fui ajudar uma amiga a fazer os fatos e a pintar dois lenços gigantes (siim, mesmo muuuito grandes).
Confesso que nunca liguei muito aos santos, talvez porque não suporto sardinhas, mas este ano vi tudo com outros olhos.
Até fui ao Pavilhão Atlântico ver o desfile para efeitos de competição, mas neste fim de semana não fui à Avenida (os meus pais e o meu irmão foram, portanto a família esteve representada, sort of...).
A inspiração foi os lenços dos namorados :) E apesar de este ano o Castelo não bisado nos prémios principais (ficou em 6º na classificação geral), pelo menos ganhou o de Melhor Figurino (ex-aequo com Carnide). Grande Rita!!!

I'm sorry for not having translated this post, it was just something so specific that I thought it would be very hard to translate, but I'll try.
I'll begin by explaining what this is all about.
In June there are festivities throughout the country, each town celebrating its patron saint. It's summer, people get together in the town center, eating sardines, dancing around, in small times it means that time of the year when you can flirt all you want while watching a concert of your favourite folk singer. Ssometimes I see that in american movies too, with all the country music and the ferris wheels. This is our version of that. Sort of.
In Lisbon this time of the year also brings a competition between the different buroughs (almost 20). It's called "Marchas Populares". It's really a big thing around here, it's a really old tradition and people are passionate about it. There is a big parade in Avenida da Liberdade, a main street in the heart of Lisbon, hundreds of people watch it and it lasts all night. It's so crowded that I never go... The competition entails best coreography, best costumes, best music, just to name the most important ones.

The preparations of the costumes and the rehearsing of the coreography start several months before. It's all a secret, if someone shares pictures or inside information the burough can even be disqualified. Because of this, I hadn't been able to post the photos I took some weeks ago, when I helped a friend in the making of the costumes and in painting too really big pannels.
I have never been a really big fan of this traditional parade, maybe because I don't like sardines, but this year, being involved and having met people that were so into it, I saw it under a new perspective.
I went to the parade held just for the jury, in a concert hall called Pavilhão Atlântico, but didn't go to the parade in Avenida da Liberdade (my parents and my brother went, so the family was well represented).
The theme of the burough I was with (Castelo = Castle) was the "lenços dos namorados". This is another traditon from way back when people couldn't date openly, so girls would make these lovely embroidery scarves with messages of love and the guy they gave it too would wear it in case he wanted to express his love too. Many of this scarves are known to have spelling mistakes, because people didn't go to school. The motifs are usually hearts, flowers, and phrases pretty much like Edward's "Take care of my heart, I've left it with you" :) The idea behind it was expressing the Castle's burough love for the city of Lisbon and how the patron saint (Santo António, also the patron of couples) aproved this match.
And so the Castle burough, who won last year, this year came in 6th place in the overall but at least won the award of best costume. Rita, my friend's friend who was responsible for the styling, deserves to be congratulated!

The pictures show us making the costumes and painting the big pannels. The video shows the parade for the jury I went to (I wasn't the one filming it, I found it in YouTube).