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Corvo (Azores Islands) - Culture

Holy Ghost Festival (common festival for Azores Islands)

Between the several contributions that were left from Medieval Europe stands the special cult which is given in the Azores to the Third Person of The Holy Trinity. As if announcing spring, immediately after Easter Sunday, the various communities grouped in brotherhoods, more or less formal, start to organise the feasts which will continue during the seven Sundays after Trinity Sunday.

Two aspects that are evidenced here, for the purpose of this writing are the Offers and the Alms.

The first of the responsibility of the feast commission is essentially a sharing ceremony. The goods which each one offered, reunited by the commission members on Sundays and Collecting Sundays, are sold, exchanged or organised in order to allow "the Offers" which is the freely distribution of bread, meat and wine by all the inhabitants of the nearest area.

On that Sunday - usually said the first Holy Ghost Sunday - wine and bread are distributed by everyone and even the most unknown person if he does not receive a bread is at least invited to taste sweet bread and wine which during the whole day are at disposal on the Empire House.

This sharing of richness and remembrance that in God everyone is equal has also another form: the Promise from which results an Emperor. For any reason that only regards to the Emperor, which he will divulge if he feels the audiences sincerely interested. The Emperor is a person from the parish who, on moments of difficulty, asked for help to the Holy Ghost.

Nothing too different so far. What really happens is that the Promise instead of being an act of sacrifice is on the contrary an act of happiness. It locks forward to change the logic of things. That is what turns the Feast of the Holy Ghost strange and interesting.

Vila Nova do Corvo is the smallest Portuguese Village and, certainly the most isolated one.
To walk along its narrow streets, paved with pebbles and, in the middle, flagstones that have been smoothed by use, is to travel into the past while looking at the black stone facades with the doors and windows edged with white, and feeling the isolation that surrounds the little town set in the green countryside, beside the blue sea.
Observe, in some doors, the characteristic wooden locks used in houses and lofts in the absence of metal in the past.
Worth a visit is the church of Nossa Senhora dos Milagres (Our Lady of Miracles), the patron saint of the island, with a Flemish Image (16th c.).
In some houses you can see the looms that are still in use, recalling a woollen's tradition that has almost been lost, and on which thick woollen cloth is woven by traditional, complicated and curious processes.

Caldeirao. The crater of the extinct volcano which gave rise to the island is called Monte Gordo. It is 300 metres deep and has a perimeter of 3,400 metres. At the bottom there are two calm lakes with small islets which are traditionally through to represent the archipelago of the Azores (excluding Flores and Corvo). Magnificent views from the top.

Rocks and islets. The rock of the Knight, a legendary figure facing west, which is taken to be a statue indicating the way to America... a figure that has even been deemed worthy of mention by chroniclers and historians. Other rocks with fantastic shapes, such as the pointed Marco, are scattered along the craggy coast. Several small islets dot the clear blue sea.

The windmills. Similar to the devices the Moors left behind them in Continental Portugal, the windmills of Corvo are different from those of the other islands because of their triangular cloth sails and their inside mechanism that makes the vault revolve to accompany the wind. Squat, conical trunks of black stone, the opening they have is a door.

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