Most of the festivals that take place within the Municipality of Calheta are associated with religious festivals and provide residents and visitors a like with a wide variety of activities of ethnographic nature. At the base of these celebrations is music, from traditional folklore groups to local philharmonic bands. As is to be expected, all the excitement is complemented by regional food and delicacies.

These festivities permit the continuity of the traditional processions that pass over carpets of flowers and traditional streetlights that extend to the churches by wooden poles that also support the typical coloured flags. And so, on these occasions you can see the typical flower carpets made locally by the people of the respective parishes and experience the characteristic tastes of these parties in tents serving traditional espetada (beef skewered on laurel stick) accompanied by bolo do caco and dry wine or beer with Laranjada. The most well-known festivals in Calheta are: Senhora do Loreto (Arco da Calheta) and Senhora da Graça (Calheta).

 

“Throughout the Munincipality of Calheta, there are some unique traditions worth noting: 

• Festivity of the Divine Holy Spirit, singing of the peasant girls and their traditional costume;
• Chorolas, a true work of art linked to this municipality;
• Christmas  and Epiphany masses;

These forms of cultural expression that have been passed down to us, are worth all our efforts in order to preserve them.

Let’s be proud of them!

 

In História com história, de António Manuel de Castro e Maria Elisa de França Brazão.