Ruth's Newsletter Friday, December 20, 2002
HOW TO CELEBRATE A PORTUGUESE XMAS
by Ruth
(a portuguese lol)
In order to celebrate a Portuguese Xmas you need:
1. King-cake with dried fruit (yeck)
2. a Pig (opticional)
3. a codfish (required)
4. port wine / fire water / wine (optional)
5. enormous proportions of food, sweets, cakes and
fattening beyond belief goods
6. xmas delicacies which names you won’t be able to say
anyway (required)
7. tasty corn bread with various types of Portuguese
cheese (optional but you don’t know what’s you’re
missing if you don’t eat it!)
8. Presents (required, otherwise it wouldn’t be Xmas, just
a darn excuse to eat like a pig and put up with relatives!)
9. TV (optional, in case something remontly interesting
appears, to get your mind of dullest family reunions)
10. a warm heater cause it gets a bit chilly, on the other
hand with so much people inside a house its bound to
get hot anyway (specially with the spirit drinks)
11. to be in Portugal (optional – although, if you’re not here
its not a Portuguese xmas but a fake, pretending to be
Portuguese xmas!)
12. Last but not least – olive oil – (only if you have the
codfish, if not and you don’t carry one of those oil
lanterns you won’t need it.
CHAPTER I – PREPARATION
Ok, now you have all the requirements for your Portuguese Xmas, its time to follow these steps and rules
THE SHOPPING!
If you’re a to the core Portuguese, you’ll start shopping for xmas presents 1 week before xmas eve. Actually, shopping is still done after xmas day. Either way, doing xmas shopping early or late, the destination is the same – the mall! At the last minute despair is common to hit 9-11 stores, supermarket chain stores etc etc.
COMMON PRESENTS
A true Portuguese age above 40 will buy either socks or underwear. And I don’t mean expensive ones. Just a regular brand from the department store around the corner. Another favorite present among the old (specially grandmas) is deodorant. When it comes to gifts for males, Deodorants, shaving foams, after shaves, eau de Toilet (no, not the “toilet”) are oh so very common. Among the higher classes, ties, cigars, whiskey and port are also favorites. If you’re a teen, you’ll pout if you don’t receive either a cell phone, cd or dvd
XMAS TREE
We usually decorated the tree about 3 weeks in advance, which is weird since we do everything else at the last minute. A fake tree is the most common unless you live near the woods and if so, you chop off a pine tree and decorate it. We use little bells, fuses, colored balls, weird colorful straps, xmas lights, cotton to fake snow (in the old days, now its just snow out of a can) and a star on top. The final touch is, of course the – Presépio (crib). You guys call presépio – the crib but to us, ‘presépio’ its the disposition of the holy figures – Joseph, Mary, the cow, the donkey and Jesus in the manger. Some are simpler made with paper, clay, wood, moss, others more refined, made from porcelain, glass, crystal. The tree is supposed to stand until “wise men day” –January 6th unless Its my tree and in that case it stays til Easter!
DECORATIONS
People who live in apartments usually hang some decorations on the door, windows and balconies. People who live in houses usually decorate the yard, putting lights on the trees and stuff. Xmas socks is not a Portuguese thing but in the last 5 years, xmas socks started appearing in the stores.
TRADITIONS
There’s probably a lot of traditions around xmas in different parts of Portugal,I admit I don’t know them that well, but there’s one I heard about Tras-os-Montes. They burn a huge piece of wood, make an out door fire on the street as high as a xmas tree, to keep the baby jesus warm. I can tell you what we don’t have – we don’t have eggnog and no mizzle toe, no candies on stocking, no milk and cookies for the white beard man. There’s of course, the mother of all traditions in Portugal and that’s eat codfish with potatoes and cabbages with lots of olive oil on Xmas eve.
CHAPTER II- THE FOOD
This is the part that requires our full attention. Portuguese eat until they burst. Unlike the Greeks, we don’t trow up to make more room for food. We just wait a bit, after a port and reload.
If you live in a small town you gotta do some killing.– the killing of a pig (very disgusting ritual). Stick a big knife wait for the blood to pour and then the dead pig its ready to become ham, meat, ‘chouriços’ (a mix of meat, spices inside the pig’s guts and then smoked – I don’t mean in a cigarette... smoked meat inside pig’s gut – yes, very ‘appealing’) and many different dishes. If you life in the city and don’t have the pig, just buy the body parts or the final product and avoid the home slaughter thing.
Sweets, pastry, yummy cakes, deep fried colestrol enemies
You won’t believe the amount of sweets, cakes, fried oily goods that decorated a xmas eve table.On a traditional level we have:
Bolo Rei (King cake) – This has something to do with the 3 wise men. Its a cake made with all types of nuts and dried fruits (not my favorite actually). Inside the cake there’s a lucky charm and a fava bean. Who ever gets the charm gets lucky, who ever gets the fava bean get’s the opposite. We celebrate ‘wise men day’ on the 6th of January so, on this day its a must have, must eat thing – I still don’t eat it yeck
Velhozes / sonhos also traditional kidda pastry, sweet goes deep fried thing made with pumpkin. I’m not sure which region is originated but back in Santarem where my mum was born its a must.
Azevias. Another traditional same, I think it originated in Alentejo
Rabanadas. (French toasts) are also common, they come from France but we eat them anyway lol. Not me though since that ugly incident involving myself at age 13 eating a just out of the fried pan French toast which caused me a bad case of indigestion and nausea. Since I don’t like throwing up, I was indispose most of the night and after that, French toast – NO MORE!
Other deep fried favorite is (not sweet but salty) Pasteis de bacalhau (codfish rolls). There’s 1001 ways to cook codfish and this is one of them.
There’s also the always present nuts and dried figos –I’m not too fond of those too. But its not a xmas eve table if it doesn’t have either, almonds, nuts, acorns, pine nuts
As far as sweets and cakes go, man...the list goes on forever.From eggs pudin, to honey cake, from molotov to cookie cake, passing through mousse au chocolat, condensed milk goodies to almond pie. The calories go up and up and up.
As for pastry, well corn bread is popular with either cheese, presunto (salty dried beyond belief ham) or chouriço.
CHAPTER III – THE ACTUAL DAY
XMAS EVE DINNER
On xmas eve morning you’ll still be out there buying the last presents and going through the shopping list to find out you forgot to buy either the nuts, the eggs or sugar to do the cakes etc etc. So until the very last minute, when the malls, shops are closing you’ll see people begging to let them into stores to buy something. In a panic they try the 9-11 stores for a piece of deodorant, cheap chocolates or whatever can be wrapped in paper with a bow and be presented as a gift.
People who are on time (which is rare) will start arriving at around 8pm, will eat dinner, what is called – Consoada – at around 9pm. From 8 to 9pm people snack whatever is on the table (see chapter II – food). No turkey on xmas eve, just traditional boiled codfish with patatos and cabbages, traditional cakes and deep fried sweets!
People who are not on time will eat at about midnight cause after baking the tradional deep fried goodies its way late but no one cares cause its xmas eve and there’s plenty to snack.
Ok, if you manage to survive through the family chip chat “how have you been-s”, “how come you never visit us-es” and political blabbing and minding your business until midnight you’re home free. In fact we open the presents at the stroke of midnight. No waiting around for Xmas morning. That’s right, we’re always late but not when it come to open presents. The record holders for people who open xmas presents way late – the Spanish. Technically they’re right, cause the gift offering is on Wise Men day (January 6th) and that’s when, in fact, the 3 kings brought gifts to baby Jesus.
After midnight there’s a mass, I figure this is common in all Christian countries. In Portugal, its called “missa do Galo” and usually its a must do among elders and true believers in small towns. City folk don’t usually go. I live near a church and since there’s a lot of elders in the historical town (actually we’re a city now) of Amora so a lot of people around these parts go.
Where do the presents come from?
The Portuguese point of view
1.Santa Claus
He comes from the north pole, he’s fat and wears a red suit, drives a sleigh with reindeers. If you live in a house, he’ll come down your chimney, delivers the goods and he’s out of there. But, if you live in an apartment, adults don’t have a logical explanation for its arrival (cause we don’t have chimney in apartments). Kids don’t care cause these days all they care about is the goods.
2.Baby Jesus
Some parents will say that baby Jesus brought them the gifts cause they were good boys and/or girls. They don’t explain how come a baby has the ability to transport and deliver all the goods but, once again, either the kids don’t care or they will assume its a magical thing cause “Hey we’re kids we’re not supposed to be smart”.
3.Parents
Nowadays most kids know that its the parents that buy them the gifts. In fact some of them don’t even bother to keep the mystique of waiting around to see what they got and just demand the present they want to the parents who will buy them way before the actual day and give to them saying “There! Here’s your xmas present.Stop annoying us!”
4.You
This is very common around single people living alone or with money power. There’s no such thing as Santa Claus. “Who cares about Santa, I want the darn cds, camera, clothes, dvds, domestic , cellular phone, play station etc etc.!”
CHRISTMAS DAY
The final stretch through all the xmas thing. On this day you’ll sleep until 2pm unless you’re hosting the xmas lunch, if so, you’re up at 7am cooking like crazy. People will eat again with the family (a different side of the family from xmas eve). This is turkey time and we’ll trow the last beyond belief tasty, fatting goods into the table. You’ll eat until you’re stomach bursts. For an easy digestion its common to take a walk with the family or try to go somewhere that’s open which is mission impossible. A lot of crappy movies are on tv and most people will stay in the house doing absolutely nothing or enjoying the presents.
AFTER CHRISTMAS DAY
The festivities are not over yet. Right after the new year’s eve,we ‘re looking forward for wise men day when its official to eat King Cake, nuts and either port or fire water. Its tradition to sing what you might call: Xmas carols, we call it “janeiras” (out of ‘janeiro’ –january-). After this date you’re supposed to take out the tree, unless you’re lazy.
If you don’t file for bankruptcy or end up in the poor house cause of the money you spend you’ll have to do a strict diet to loose the outrageous amount of weight you’ve gain during the xmas activities.
Of course, that’s not over yet cause you still have New Year’s Eve but....
.................................... That’s another story...
So long, thank you for sharing the xmas holidays with the people in the butt of Europe, aka Portugal. Drive safely and remember its all about the spirit of Xmas, spending as much money you can with expensive gifts and consuming like maniacs given to people you hardly know but you don’t want them to call you cheap steak so what the hell...
MERRY CHRISTMAS
AND HAPPY NEW YEAR
(a portuguese lol)
In order to celebrate a Portuguese Xmas you need:
1. King-cake with dried fruit (yeck)
2. a Pig (opticional)
3. a codfish (required)
4. port wine / fire water / wine (optional)
5. enormous proportions of food, sweets, cakes and
fattening beyond belief goods
6. xmas delicacies which names you won’t be able to say
anyway (required)
7. tasty corn bread with various types of Portuguese
cheese (optional but you don’t know what’s you’re
missing if you don’t eat it!)
8. Presents (required, otherwise it wouldn’t be Xmas, just
a darn excuse to eat like a pig and put up with relatives!)
9. TV (optional, in case something remontly interesting
appears, to get your mind of dullest family reunions)
10. a warm heater cause it gets a bit chilly, on the other
hand with so much people inside a house its bound to
get hot anyway (specially with the spirit drinks)
11. to be in Portugal (optional – although, if you’re not here
its not a Portuguese xmas but a fake, pretending to be
Portuguese xmas!)
12. Last but not least – olive oil – (only if you have the
codfish, if not and you don’t carry one of those oil
lanterns you won’t need it.
CHAPTER I – PREPARATION
Ok, now you have all the requirements for your Portuguese Xmas, its time to follow these steps and rules
THE SHOPPING!
If you’re a to the core Portuguese, you’ll start shopping for xmas presents 1 week before xmas eve. Actually, shopping is still done after xmas day. Either way, doing xmas shopping early or late, the destination is the same – the mall! At the last minute despair is common to hit 9-11 stores, supermarket chain stores etc etc.
COMMON PRESENTS
A true Portuguese age above 40 will buy either socks or underwear. And I don’t mean expensive ones. Just a regular brand from the department store around the corner. Another favorite present among the old (specially grandmas) is deodorant. When it comes to gifts for males, Deodorants, shaving foams, after shaves, eau de Toilet (no, not the “toilet”) are oh so very common. Among the higher classes, ties, cigars, whiskey and port are also favorites. If you’re a teen, you’ll pout if you don’t receive either a cell phone, cd or dvd
XMAS TREE
We usually decorated the tree about 3 weeks in advance, which is weird since we do everything else at the last minute. A fake tree is the most common unless you live near the woods and if so, you chop off a pine tree and decorate it. We use little bells, fuses, colored balls, weird colorful straps, xmas lights, cotton to fake snow (in the old days, now its just snow out of a can) and a star on top. The final touch is, of course the – Presépio (crib). You guys call presépio – the crib but to us, ‘presépio’ its the disposition of the holy figures – Joseph, Mary, the cow, the donkey and Jesus in the manger. Some are simpler made with paper, clay, wood, moss, others more refined, made from porcelain, glass, crystal. The tree is supposed to stand until “wise men day” –January 6th unless Its my tree and in that case it stays til Easter!
DECORATIONS
People who live in apartments usually hang some decorations on the door, windows and balconies. People who live in houses usually decorate the yard, putting lights on the trees and stuff. Xmas socks is not a Portuguese thing but in the last 5 years, xmas socks started appearing in the stores.
TRADITIONS
There’s probably a lot of traditions around xmas in different parts of Portugal,I admit I don’t know them that well, but there’s one I heard about Tras-os-Montes. They burn a huge piece of wood, make an out door fire on the street as high as a xmas tree, to keep the baby jesus warm. I can tell you what we don’t have – we don’t have eggnog and no mizzle toe, no candies on stocking, no milk and cookies for the white beard man. There’s of course, the mother of all traditions in Portugal and that’s eat codfish with potatoes and cabbages with lots of olive oil on Xmas eve.
CHAPTER II- THE FOOD
This is the part that requires our full attention. Portuguese eat until they burst. Unlike the Greeks, we don’t trow up to make more room for food. We just wait a bit, after a port and reload.
If you live in a small town you gotta do some killing.– the killing of a pig (very disgusting ritual). Stick a big knife wait for the blood to pour and then the dead pig its ready to become ham, meat, ‘chouriços’ (a mix of meat, spices inside the pig’s guts and then smoked – I don’t mean in a cigarette... smoked meat inside pig’s gut – yes, very ‘appealing’) and many different dishes. If you life in the city and don’t have the pig, just buy the body parts or the final product and avoid the home slaughter thing.
Sweets, pastry, yummy cakes, deep fried colestrol enemies
You won’t believe the amount of sweets, cakes, fried oily goods that decorated a xmas eve table.On a traditional level we have:
Bolo Rei (King cake) – This has something to do with the 3 wise men. Its a cake made with all types of nuts and dried fruits (not my favorite actually). Inside the cake there’s a lucky charm and a fava bean. Who ever gets the charm gets lucky, who ever gets the fava bean get’s the opposite. We celebrate ‘wise men day’ on the 6th of January so, on this day its a must have, must eat thing – I still don’t eat it yeck
Velhozes / sonhos also traditional kidda pastry, sweet goes deep fried thing made with pumpkin. I’m not sure which region is originated but back in Santarem where my mum was born its a must.
Azevias. Another traditional same, I think it originated in Alentejo
Rabanadas. (French toasts) are also common, they come from France but we eat them anyway lol. Not me though since that ugly incident involving myself at age 13 eating a just out of the fried pan French toast which caused me a bad case of indigestion and nausea. Since I don’t like throwing up, I was indispose most of the night and after that, French toast – NO MORE!
Other deep fried favorite is (not sweet but salty) Pasteis de bacalhau (codfish rolls). There’s 1001 ways to cook codfish and this is one of them.
There’s also the always present nuts and dried figos –I’m not too fond of those too. But its not a xmas eve table if it doesn’t have either, almonds, nuts, acorns, pine nuts
As far as sweets and cakes go, man...the list goes on forever.From eggs pudin, to honey cake, from molotov to cookie cake, passing through mousse au chocolat, condensed milk goodies to almond pie. The calories go up and up and up.
As for pastry, well corn bread is popular with either cheese, presunto (salty dried beyond belief ham) or chouriço.
CHAPTER III – THE ACTUAL DAY
XMAS EVE DINNER
On xmas eve morning you’ll still be out there buying the last presents and going through the shopping list to find out you forgot to buy either the nuts, the eggs or sugar to do the cakes etc etc. So until the very last minute, when the malls, shops are closing you’ll see people begging to let them into stores to buy something. In a panic they try the 9-11 stores for a piece of deodorant, cheap chocolates or whatever can be wrapped in paper with a bow and be presented as a gift.
People who are on time (which is rare) will start arriving at around 8pm, will eat dinner, what is called – Consoada – at around 9pm. From 8 to 9pm people snack whatever is on the table (see chapter II – food). No turkey on xmas eve, just traditional boiled codfish with patatos and cabbages, traditional cakes and deep fried sweets!
People who are not on time will eat at about midnight cause after baking the tradional deep fried goodies its way late but no one cares cause its xmas eve and there’s plenty to snack.
Ok, if you manage to survive through the family chip chat “how have you been-s”, “how come you never visit us-es” and political blabbing and minding your business until midnight you’re home free. In fact we open the presents at the stroke of midnight. No waiting around for Xmas morning. That’s right, we’re always late but not when it come to open presents. The record holders for people who open xmas presents way late – the Spanish. Technically they’re right, cause the gift offering is on Wise Men day (January 6th) and that’s when, in fact, the 3 kings brought gifts to baby Jesus.
After midnight there’s a mass, I figure this is common in all Christian countries. In Portugal, its called “missa do Galo” and usually its a must do among elders and true believers in small towns. City folk don’t usually go. I live near a church and since there’s a lot of elders in the historical town (actually we’re a city now) of Amora so a lot of people around these parts go.
Where do the presents come from?
The Portuguese point of view
1.Santa Claus
He comes from the north pole, he’s fat and wears a red suit, drives a sleigh with reindeers. If you live in a house, he’ll come down your chimney, delivers the goods and he’s out of there. But, if you live in an apartment, adults don’t have a logical explanation for its arrival (cause we don’t have chimney in apartments). Kids don’t care cause these days all they care about is the goods.
2.Baby Jesus
Some parents will say that baby Jesus brought them the gifts cause they were good boys and/or girls. They don’t explain how come a baby has the ability to transport and deliver all the goods but, once again, either the kids don’t care or they will assume its a magical thing cause “Hey we’re kids we’re not supposed to be smart”.
3.Parents
Nowadays most kids know that its the parents that buy them the gifts. In fact some of them don’t even bother to keep the mystique of waiting around to see what they got and just demand the present they want to the parents who will buy them way before the actual day and give to them saying “There! Here’s your xmas present.Stop annoying us!”
4.You
This is very common around single people living alone or with money power. There’s no such thing as Santa Claus. “Who cares about Santa, I want the darn cds, camera, clothes, dvds, domestic , cellular phone, play station etc etc.!”
CHRISTMAS DAY
The final stretch through all the xmas thing. On this day you’ll sleep until 2pm unless you’re hosting the xmas lunch, if so, you’re up at 7am cooking like crazy. People will eat again with the family (a different side of the family from xmas eve). This is turkey time and we’ll trow the last beyond belief tasty, fatting goods into the table. You’ll eat until you’re stomach bursts. For an easy digestion its common to take a walk with the family or try to go somewhere that’s open which is mission impossible. A lot of crappy movies are on tv and most people will stay in the house doing absolutely nothing or enjoying the presents.
AFTER CHRISTMAS DAY
The festivities are not over yet. Right after the new year’s eve,we ‘re looking forward for wise men day when its official to eat King Cake, nuts and either port or fire water. Its tradition to sing what you might call: Xmas carols, we call it “janeiras” (out of ‘janeiro’ –january-). After this date you’re supposed to take out the tree, unless you’re lazy.
If you don’t file for bankruptcy or end up in the poor house cause of the money you spend you’ll have to do a strict diet to loose the outrageous amount of weight you’ve gain during the xmas activities.
Of course, that’s not over yet cause you still have New Year’s Eve but....
.................................... That’s another story...
So long, thank you for sharing the xmas holidays with the people in the butt of Europe, aka Portugal. Drive safely and remember its all about the spirit of Xmas, spending as much money you can with expensive gifts and consuming like maniacs given to people you hardly know but you don’t want them to call you cheap steak so what the hell...
MERRY CHRISTMAS
AND HAPPY NEW YEAR
