Festa dos Tabuleiros

The Festa dos Tabuleiros (Festival of the Trays) is held every four years in early July in Tomar. The most recent festival, held in the summer of 2007, attracted over 600,000 visitors from around the world.

The festival, which can dates back to the 16th Century in the Cult of the Holy Spirit, is a five day affair. The town of Tomar is decorated in paper roses and there is music, dancing and fireworks throughout.

The opening of the Festival begins with a lively parade of bands, council and parish dignitaries carrying a crown symbolising their district.

On the evening of the first day awards are given out to the most colourful and originally dressed street. Whole communities spend the intervening four years' preparing and designs remain secret until the unveiling.

Though there are events on throughout the week, it is the final day which attracts the most amount of visitors.

The procession of the trays consists of four hundred or so young women wearing white, each escorted by a young man in a white shirt, red tie and black trousers.

Each woman  carries on her head a tray with 30 loaves threaded on vertical canes, intertwined with leaves and colourful paper flowers and crowned with a white dove – the symbol of the Holy Spirit. The resulting headdress weighs in the region of 15kg.

In the intervening four years headdresses are one display in various locations, including cafes and the Tourist information office, throughout Tomar.

The next festival is scheduled to be held in July 2011. For more information on the Festa dos Tabuleiros contact Tomar's tourist information office at www.tomartourism.pt