Portuguese maintain tradition of festivals

If all had gone as planned, the men and women of the St. John Holy Ghost Association in Fall River would have gathered for Sunday morning Mass at Espirito Santo Church, where the priest would have crowned a child as emperor and local Portuguese-Americans would have marched to the association's hall for a big feast at which all comers would have been given a soup made of bread, kale, and beef.

Instead, the community is preparing for a memorial service tonight at 7 at the church to mourn four people who died at a rosary service Wednesday night, and to pray for those who were injured.

This weekend's Holy Ghost Festival in Fall River -- the celebration of which is now uncertain because of the tragedy -- is one of hundreds of such festivals that take place each spring and summer throughout the Azorean diaspora, in New England, California, Brazil, and beyond.

The festivals are a unique expression of devotion to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Christian Trinity, that is closely associated with the intense religiosity of the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago in the northern Atlantic. As residents of the Azores immigrated to the Americas, they brought the festival with them.

``It's simply the most important tradition in the Azores," said Manuela Bairos, Portugal's consul general in Boston.

The festivals vary in timing and detail from location to location, but share several elements, including a procession, often led by children dressed as saints; a free meal, usually consisting of a soup with bread, some form of cabbage, and meat; and a silver crown or crowns, usually adorned with a dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit.

The celebrations have a strongly Catholic character. The procession takes place on a Sunday after Pentecost and is preceded by a Mass. Often, as in Fall River, people get together evenings before the feast to recite the rosary.

``The Portuguese people, especially from the Azores, have a great devotion to the Holy Spirit, and that has permeated their culture," said the Rev. James Ferry, pastor of Espirito Santo parish, where a majority of the Holy Ghost Association worships.

But over the centuries there has also been tension between the church and the festival associations; the festivals are led by lay people, the feasts traditionally take place off church property, and some elements of the festival, such as the crowning of someone labeled emperor or queen, have at times concerned church officials.

``There were other festivals in medieval Europe, but they all died out, and the only places where they are still practiced with great devotion are in the Azores and wherever Azoreans have immigrated to," said Frank Sousa, director of the Center for Portuguese Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

The festivals date back at least 500 years and are inspired by a 13th- to 14th-century Portuguese saint, Queen Elizabeth (also known as Isabel), who was a devout Christian with a passion for the poor. Legend says Elizabeth once gave her crown to a poor person and that she had a cow slaughtered to give meat to the poor. Now, Portuguese families vie to keep a crown in their house for a week between Easter and the festival, and food is given to everyone at the festival.

``In the Azores, which have been plagued by earthquakes and volcanoes over the centuries, the Holy Ghost and the crown of the Holy Ghost have become a very powerful symbol, and often in volcanic eruptions people went with the crown to implore God to stop the running of lava rivers," said Onesimo Almeida, professor of Portuguese studies at Brown University. Almeida said the festivals offered people a chance to imagine a world in which anyone could be emperor and everyone could eat.

``This is the people ruling for a day," he said.

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.