Portugal’s wine-country procession drew thousands of visitors for Ox-pulled floats with sacred images of Mary

Thursday, September 14, 2023

Galego and Cabano, two dark-haired oxen, drew the revered image of Our Lady of Remedies on a procession float through the little town in Portugal’s wine area for more than two hours. Even when two cannons blasted salutes at the procession’s finish, they remained unaffected, but their owner, a local farmer, grinned with delight, reports AP.

“I love working with animals, and I have a lot of faith in Nossa Senhora dos Remédios,” said Antonio Faustino. He led the giant animals in the celebration of the Virgin Mary’s image, which has been revered in Lamego since the 1500s.

Lamego’s festival, dubbed “Portugal’s pilgrimage,” is one of the oldest and largest of the various religious feasts that bring tens of thousands of people to hamlets and metropolises throughout the summer. They are still popular in this increasingly secularising nation.

This celebration is unique because of the Maronesa oxen pairs and others dragging floats down Lamego’s steep cobblestone alleys past various churches, some of which date back to the Middle Ages. In comparable festivities across the world, it is typically the devout who bring various representations of Mary.

It is consistent with the agricultural traditions of the Douro River Valley, where grapes create port wine. Early September sees the start of the grape harvest, which is mostly done by hand on the steep, terraced slopes.

According to the Rev. Fernando Albano Cardoso, who has organised the festivities for 40 years, the Vatican legally gave special authorization for animals to pull the floats with life-sized images of the Virgin Mary a century ago.

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