December 1 is a national holiday in Portugal: Restoration of Independence, 1640. Austerity measures removed the holiday in 2012, and today marks the return of December 1 as a statutory holiday after four years of being just another day. That’s plenty reason to celebrate, but Porto took it a step further and popped fireworks in front of City Hall this evening to mark the first day of holiday lighting in the city. The Christmas tree is now lit up, and the holiday lights will turn on every day at 5:30pm until January 8.
Before the fireworks, we dropped off Ice at the dog hotel and I wandered the streets of Porto for another hour to take some night shots, look for more street art, and see what other holiday lights I could find. I was happy to see the same lighting display at Praça de Lisboa as last year — it’s bright and cheery — but I’d love to see the bling balls make a comeback at some point.
{ More photos in the album. }
Two video clips from the fireworks, with plenty of siren thrown in. (The first video is about 2.5 minutes, the second is much shorter, 42 seconds.)
We are flying to Madeira early in the morning, and as usual, I won’t be posting here while we’re away. Instead, I microblog photos and videos in Instagram and upload the occasional longer video to the Facebook page. Paulo hasn’t been to Madeira since he was 15 years old, and I’ve never been, so it will be an adventure for both of us!
December 1, 2016
Album: Portugal [Autumn 2016]
