With Joel Cleto, Germano Silva and Alfredo Mendes, the presentation will be next Tuesday, the day of the municipal holiday
Every year, the Municipality of Matosinhos fulfills the tradition of presenting the so-called “book of parties” by Senhor de Matosinhos, a publication that, like many others, enriches the municipality's documentary, historical and literary collection.
The presentation of the work is scheduled for next Tuesday, June 7th, a municipal holiday, at 16:00, in the Salão Nobre dos Paços do Concelho.
With a preface by journalist Germano Silva, the book “Senhor de Matosinhos – Contar a Festa” features photographs by Francisco Teixeira and texts by Ribeiro dos Santos, Emídio de Oliveira, Santos Lessa, Joaquim Queirós and Alfredo Mendes, in addition to other unknown authors.
“The Pilgrimage of Senhor de Matosinhos has always attracted the attention and inspiration of many journalists, so it is possible to gather texts that come from 1860 to the present day”, says the Councilor for Culture and president of ANCIMA - Association for the Animation of the City de Matosinhos, Fernando Rocha.
In the words of the Mayor, “the ephemerality of life puts us at risk of losing everything that we do not have the ingenuity and art to know how to preserve”. “This year's traditional book on the festivities of our city seeks to preserve this long legacy of more than seven centuries”, he adds.
Luísa Salgueiro emphasizes that “every word and image is a living testimony of the identity and belonging role that this annual celebration takes on, so felt by all those who travel the main arteries”.
“The temple of Bom Jesus is a sea of dreams. The decorations on the flowers do not seem of this world, as the woman who crossed herself when entering the church said. Senhor de Matosinhos, there at the top of the Cross, arms wide open, seems to abandon his air of suffering and give a smile to all those people, to the thousands of believers and non-believers”, writes journalist Joaquim Queirós, in one of his texts. published.
In addition to written memories, the work recalls, in images, Francisco Teixeira's perspective on the Festas do Senhor de Matosinhos. In fact, most of the images can be seen in the photography exhibition “Senhor de Matosinhos – Light, moments, feelings and emotions”, on display at the Florbela Espanca Municipal Library Gallery until July 2nd.
The exhibition portrays the various facets, between the religious and the pagan, of the 700-year-old pilgrimage. From ceramics to plenty, from carousels, from gigantones to bass drums, from regional sweets to table football, from the “à la minute” horse, from fireworks to the fireworks of dolls, from the procession to the flowery altars, all the details fit in the photographer’s lens.