Life in Góis December 2009

23rd December
Christmas is just 2 days away and a severe weather warning has been issued over Portugal for Christmas Eve. Here in Góis we have not experienced anything exceptional, although the weather has been changing almost daily from extreme cold and frost to strong winds and heavy rainfall, with the occasional glimpses of blue sky and sunshine between the clouds. A popular outdoor Christmas decoration here is Santa Claus climbing a ladder up to a window – this morning the Santas of Góis were looking distinctly sodden and bedraggled as they swung limply on their ladders!

The traditions of a Portuguese Christmas are slightly different from those of Britain – for example, although nearly every family nowadays has a Christmas tree of some sort, it is traditional to set up a Nativity scene (called the ‘Presépio’), that includes Mary, Joseph, the ox and the ass, and the three wise men, The figure of baby Jesus is added to the scene only after midnight on Christmas morning. The Christmas meal is eaten late on Christmas Eve at the ‘consuada’ – the family get-together – and usually consists of the salted fish dish Bacalhau, accompanied by Cozido – a type of stew that includes potatoes, carrots, turnips and cabbage cooked with sausage and bacon. Bacalhau, although an everyday dish in recent times, was once an expensive treat - cod harvested with some difficulty off the Newfoundland coast and salted for conservation - and so was reserved for the Christmas feast. Typical desserts include rice pudding with cinnamon, "rabandas “(a sort of French toast), "filhoses"(fried sweetmeats), "broas de mel" (pastries made with honey) and “Sonhos” (pumpkin fritters). The equivalent to the British Christmas pudding is the "Bolo Rei" (King's cake) - a ring of rich fruit bread decorated with crystallized fruits of different colours like jewels on a crown. There is a little present and a broad bean baked in the cake and whoever finds the broad bean in his slice, must buy the next “Bolo Rei”. Santa Claus visits at midnight on Christmas Eve, but in Portugal the children are actually allowed to stay up and wait for him (unlike their British counterparts who are instructed to go to bed early or “Father Christmas wont come!”) The children traditionally place shoes by the fireplace for their presents, and are told that baby Jesus helps “Pai Natal” (Santa Claus) to fill them – when times were harsh in the past, often a single sweet would be placed inside. Nowadays,presents are opened at midnight by old and young alike. Some people like to attend a midnight mass, known as "Missa do Galo"-(Cockerel Mass), or a later mass on Christmas morning - though as in Britain, this is by no means universal. Christmas Day is spent visiting and partying with family and friends, and eating a big lunch, usually with roast chicken, lamb, kid or turkey. But it is best not to develop too much of a hangover because there is no Boxing Day equivalent in Portugal, and on December 26th it is back to business as usual for many, until the next holiday on January 1st.

14th December
We stepped out this morning into a world white with frost, crunching underfoot and causing us to gasp from the sharpness of the cold in our faces. By mid-morning the sky is a cloudless blue, and the air has a dizzying clarity. As the sun gains in strength we know we will be gradually shedding the layers we donned so gratefully at daybreak until the point where we are basking in mid-afternoon sunshine – but when the sun goes down it will be time to get a good fire going. A temperature variation of 20 degrees is not unusual on a day like today, and I find this climate of extremes invigorating – like an extended sauna that leaves me feeling wide awake and glad to be alive!

7th December
December is here, and Christmas is fast approaching, which feels a little unbelievable on a warm sunny afternoon when many people are strolling around in t-shirts! But a little more believable on a cold and misty morning when you can almost (but not quite yet) feel the frost in the air. The Christmas lights are up in Góis – probably a couple of months later than most towns in Britain – and the place is looking prettily festive after dark. We have finally picked the last of our runner beans this week, and the broad beans are standing several centimeters tall, as the growing season never really stops here. The few olives from our own trees we picked and marinated for the first time this year, and we are now enjoying our very own delicious olives rather than bought ones. The cupboard is full of chutneys and sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil – the freezer full of peppers and courgettes. We will be enjoying the fruits of the summer for some time to come. This has also been an exceptional year for fungus – the timing of the rains must have been perfect for the production of all kinds of mushrooms and toadstools – some edible and some definitely inedible, springing up in gardens, woods and along the side of the road. Many folk have been out on fungus forays, or moved to stop their cars to leap out and pick some particularly luscious-looking specimen, and there have been some reported cases of poisonings and dire warnings in the newspapers about the need to know your fungi – but mostly people have been enjoying a bumper crop of this wonderful free food that has kept appearing as if by magic.

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Updated 14 June, 2010