The Significance Of November 1 In Portugal

sculpture at Cristo Rei, Almada

If you’re really into Halloween, I hate to break it to you: don’t go looking for this spectacle in Portugal. You’ll end up being disappointed and rather alone in your costume (for the exception of Santa Claus) until Carnival. Portugal is warming up to Halloween these days, but in general, this time of the year is still overshadowed by the religious and historical significance of the following day, November 1.

Igreja Paroquial de Leça da Palmeira (Matosinhos)

All Saints Day

All Saints Day 2016 is especially significant because it’s a national holiday again after four years of austerity measures which cut four national holidays. The other three holidays that were suspended: Corpus Christi, 60 days after Easter; October 5; and December 1. This led to protests (along with all the other austerity measures) but in the end, that’s what the government approved after consulting The Vatican.

Not raised a Catholic, I get the religious holidays mixed up all the time. I have to review the page on Catholic.org every year (which breaks it all down well in a short video) —

http://www.catholic.org/saints/allsaints/

— because I get All Saints Day confused with All Souls Day. All Saints Day is the holy day with religious obligations, while All Souls Day has personal rituals but no religious obligations.

On All Saints Day, the Catholic observance is towards saints — the ones who’ve made it to heaven. Having a day off means people can attend mass on a weekday if it happens to fall during that time. All Souls Day is not an official holiday, but it’s a time when people pay their respects to the dearly departed — all souls — who haven’t yet made it to heaven. And this is why I get the two days mixed up: since All Souls Day is not an official holiday, most people visit the cemeteries the day before, on November 1 (All Saints Day) because it’s usually near where they attend mass, anyway.

Lisbon City Hall

The Great Lisbon Earthquake: November 1, 1755

261 years ago, an estimated 8.5 earthquake struck Lisbon while many people were gathered inside churches that morning, observing All Saints Day. The earthquake razed the city, followed by fires (from the candles in the churches) and a series of tsunamis.

See the text under the video for more info about the earthquake.

A simulation by the Smithsonian (the ending is awful):

The earthquake happened centuries ago, but one of its many legacies is the look of reconstructed Lisbon, with its wide boulevards and large squares from a specific era and style. (This is also why so much of Lisbon looks newer than Porto, which was unaffected.) Most of the city was quickly in ruins, the Moorish castle of São Jorge high up on an escarpment severely damaged, but the ancient parishes of Bairro Alto and Alfama on the hills were spared. The reconstruction during the years that followed were led by Marquis de Pombal (Marquês de Pombal, Prime Minister Sebastião de Melo), who was influenced by the French architectural styles of the time. As a result of the earthquake and the Marquês de Pombal‘s response to it, the study of seismology was furthered and incorporated into urban planning.

What is particularly significant about the Great Lisbon Earthquake to Portuguese society is that it struck on All Saints Day, a holy day in which most of the city’s important churches were levelled. Was this a coincidence or punishment? If religion and superstition are bedfellows, the earthquake brought them even closer together.