Two events associated to Christmastide in Portugal are the New Year carols called the Janeiras and Epiphany, which represent the singing of requests on Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and Epiphany or Twelfth Night. These carols, probably inherited from the Roman strenas, are sung in order to receive gifts which take on an allusive and propitiating character, referring us, as in other celebrations, to remote times when pagan gods and goddesses were celebrated or gifts were asked for or given at the beginning of the civil year as a symbol of good fortune both for the givers and the receivers.

The custom, still nowadays spread throughout the whole of Europe in countries such as Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Germany, among others, is still celebrated with its hundreds of years old popular and festive religious songs.

The New Year carols known as Janeiras is also a tradition in Portugal which consists of groups of men and women who go throughout the streets at the beginning of the year, singing door to door and wishing people a happy new year. They take place in January, the first month of the year.

It is thought that this tradition is related to pagan cults taking place in the Roman month of the god Janus, from Janua, which means door, entrance. This Roman mythological figure, represented with two faces, is closely linked to the idea of the entrance, but particularly to the idea of transition, of knowledge of the past and the future.

The origin of the tradition of singing the January carols cannot, however be dissociated from the extreme penury in which people lived, and in this form, as well as in similar manifestations, they found a way of receiving a gift, mainly wine and foodstuffs from wealthy gentlemen, without them feeling humiliated.

For this reason they sang these carols in a mixture of religious feeling, given the period when they are sung, and irony and biting humour, always calling for gifts of food and drink. During the songs the names of the owners of the house were invoked, along with that of some other preponderant family member.

Nowadays the tradition consists of a group of friends or neighbours who get together, with or without instruments: In the case of having them, the most common ones are the folklore instruments: tambourine, drum, flute, guitar, etc. Once the group is formed and the words to the songs and the instruments have been distributed, they will go and sing from door to door throughout the neighbourhood. After a song finishes in one house, they wait for the owner of the house to bring the janeiras – chestnuts, nuts, apples, smoked sausage, black pudding, etc. Due to reasons of facility, nowadays the custom is to give chocolates and money, although this is not the tradition.

Stand high on the hill in January;
If you see green growing, start crying,
If you see land spreading, start singing

With the allegory of “until Twelfth Night it is always Christmas”, the day of the arrival of the three kings, or Epiphany, one of the most relevant traditional episodes associated to the birth of Jesus is called up.

The commemoration of Kings’ Night takes place on the 6th of January. The kings were those who baptized the ceremonial sweet pastry dish eaten on this date: the king-cake (a type of filled sweetbread decorated with crystallised dried fruit, including pine nuts, almonds, walnuts, raisins, orange, figs, cherries and pumpkins), the tradition of which has spread throughout Europe and some American countries (particularly Latin America), resulting, supposedly, from the January cake, a cake that the Romans gave out to each other on the feasts of the first day of the new year. A branch of green foliage taken from a wood devoted to the goddess Strena or Strenia was added to the cake. The name of this goddess is the derivation of the French word étrenne (which means “New Year’s presents) and the word estreias (openings), a term which in some places in Portugal is still used to define the acts of giving festive presents (to give “openings”).

The Romans added small delicacies (dates, figs, honey) to the January cake and the foliage, with wishes for a good year, for peace and happiness. This custom became more and more demanding, ending up with gold and silver replacing the simple presents. In some countries it was a habit for a long time to put a little porcelain cross in the cake (along with a dried bean), later replaced by tiny human figures, a tradition which was kept for a long time, along with the expectation about who would find the bean or the gift.

The king-cake is thus full of symbolism, as it represents the presents offered by the Three Kings to the baby Jesus. The king-cake probably appeared first in France in the time of Louis XIV for the New Year and Epiphany feasts. Some episodes have marked the history of this cake, namely its prohibition in 1789, in the middle of the French Revolution, forcing the pastry chefs to change its name to “Gâteau dês sans-cullottes”. In Portugal, after the proclamation of the republic, there were also attempts to prohibit making it, but to no success. If initially the cake was saved until the 6th of January or the eve, nowadays there are bakeries that make it all year round, or at least from the end of November until the 6th of January.

“Passions can’t be counted, only proven. Experiences are not always lost, they are felt, they remain and they are savoured.”

(Soledade Martinho Costa, 2002)

Márcia Paiva (mpaiva@fm.ul.pt)
Raquel Moreira (armoreira@fm.ul.pt)