beca.net: November 2007

Nicolinas Celebrations have its origins on the religious devotion to Saint Nicolas, who might have lived around III and IV century. It's a common belief, that he might have been a Bishop from

Turkey

Pilgrims from different parts of the country and from abroad, who came to the city (Guimarães) to worship Our Lady of Guimarães (Patron Saint of Portugal until XVII century), or who were passing through the city going to or coming from Santiago de Compostela, may have brought this cult to Guimarães, due to their worship of St. Nicolas.

St. Nicolas is the Patron Saint of the students. The legend says that 3 children where tore up by an innkeeper and as St. Nicolas approached them he brought them back to life. May be that’s why we see representations of St. Nicolas together with 3 children at his feet.
Initially the celebration to honour St. Nicolas in Guimarães were exclusively of a religious nature. However, as time passed profane expressions began to be included in the celebrations, such as: songs, dancing, etc, since they represented a way of breaking up with the hardness of daily life.
This cult, developed amongst the people, was later taken over by the students, who set up a chapel to honour St. Nicolas (between 1661 and 1663) in the Church of Our Lady of Oliveira. That’s were they settled their association.
At first the celebrations took place on St. Nicolas day only, that is, on the 6th December. On that day in the morning, the students would take part in a service and in the afternoon the celebrations would change to a more profane nature with traditional games. However, after some time, they would realize that one day was not enough for the celebrations any more and the 5th December began to be included in the celebrations. Later on, the festivities would be extended and would last 8 days, starting on the 29th November and ending on the 7th December. Nowadays that’s the period in which the celebrations take place. During these days the students have several “activities” that are part of the celebration’s structure.
Nicolinas Celebrations are considered to be the oldest celebrations of Guimarães and represent an unattainable statement of Guimarães’ cultural heritage.

We have been to one of the activities (as usual), the best known, called “Pinheiro”, that means pine, and which takes place on the 29th November.
This activity consists on a procession, where a pine is taken to the square where the celebrations take place. The procession starts at midnight, with a parade of thousands of people playing their drum, either alone or as a group. Together, playing the drum all the time, people take the pine to its destination. The pine is pushed by bulls.
Prior to the parade there are the “Ceias Nicolinas”, that is, Nicolinas Dinners. They have been being created as a get-together dinner by groups of former students, who see each other only once a year, on this day, with the purpose of marching together through the streets of the city remembering past days.

I don't know really how it was possible, but, we managed it to forghet our camera :(
So, unfortunately, there are no pictures about it this year. However, since we have youtube, all our problems are solved :)

This is, shortly, how it looks like on the 29th November in Guimarães...every year ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME62BjTSvCg

This one is from this year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul-wN0GakNw