Amidst small houses and narrow streets adorned with Christmas-themed figures and lights, a small community keeps the holiday spirit alive. This ritual endures the test of time and modern changes in a place where generations intersect: the oldest resident is 89, while the youngest is 12.
Over the weekend, the village hosts the “Christmas Workshop,” aimed at passing down the traditional customs of Parises, located in the heart of the Caldeirão mountain range, 17 kilometers from São Brás de Alportel’s municipal center.
This small village turns Christmas into a time of gathering, sharing, and solidarity among inhabitants and visitors, aiming to convey the art of crafting with local products, decorations, and festive gastronomy.
For the past three years, Sónia Martins, a tourism officer at the São Brás de Alportel Council, has spearheaded Christmas in Parises, showcasing the mountain’s traditions through workshops teaching crafts such as stars made from canes and decorated with cypress, and other seasonal figures with wood and natural materials.
“We try to recreate some of the traditions once lived in the mountains, like decorations made from natural materials, as well as food cooked with products provided by the mountains,” said the event organizer to Lusa.
Preparations for “the great celebration that is Christmas” begin a month in advance, involving Parises’ residents, most of whom are elderly but dedicated and enthusiastic, Martins explained.
The tourism officer notes that Christmas in Parises is “more than a celebration; it is a revival of something slipping away with time, such as arts and customs, including traditional cooking on an open fire, sweets, wines, and other local products.”
Martins revealed that the event “has grown year after year,” attracting about 2,000 visitors from 14 nationalities last year, with “a large number” coming from Australia.
The village’s streets and spaces are decorated with the help of children, young people, resident families, and many volunteers who work to transform Parises into “a Christmas city,” mentioned the village’s only young resident.
Gil Silvestre, 12, told Lusa that “this season brings excitement to the village, with many people helping to decorate the place where he enjoys living in harmony with nature,” despite being the only young resident.
“I like living here [in Parises] and don’t feel lonely because almost every weekend, I have friends over at my house here in the village,” said the young boy attending school in the neighboring Loulé district.
In an Algarve marked by tourism, Parises preserves the unique rhythm of the mountain interior, where the Christmas tradition is seen as intangible heritage passed down through generations, reinforcing a sense of belonging and community.
The culinary heritage also receives attention these days in the village, featuring traditional bean dishes with assorted meats cooked for hours over a wood fire, toast with honey and olive oil, or coffee brewed with coffee grounds.
“These are flavors and traditions we strive to replicate naturally,” said the Grand Master of the Caldeirão Mountain Gastronomy Confraternity, one of the bodies collaborating in the festivities, to Lusa.
According to Gonçalo Mesquita, the confraternity members participate “to recreate the lifestyles of those whose diets came solely from locally available products, highlighting the Mediterranean diet.”
The Grand Master adds that “the participation of confraternity members mainly aims to convey to new generations the richness of the gastronomic traditions, only made with local produce, like vegetables, pork, olive oil, honey, various sweets, wines, and the famous medronho firewater.”
“Here, things are done as in the past, showing that the mountains have life and an identity that needs to be preserved,” he emphasized.
