This year, for the first time, the Agonia Pilgrimage will take place over nine days, from August 14 to 22.
The Pilgrimage of Agony is made by people for people, it belongs to everyone. It’s a feeling of belonging and inexplicable love that makes it the Queen of Pilgrimages… so unique and special.
Even today, the Pilgrimage in Honor of Our Lady of Agony retains some of the most genuine aspects of what is the most traditional festival in the country and which annually brings more than a million people to this city in the north of Portugal.
The Pilgrimage in Honor of Our Senhora d’Agonia was born in 1772 out of the devotion of the men of the sea, who asked the patron saint for protection. The festival has grown and today combines devotion, history and ethnographic richness, earning it the popular title of “The Pilgrimage of the Pilgrimages of Portugal”.
The festival dictates that you wake up to the sound of firecrackers, while bombos and concertinas can be heard throughout the city. On the days of the festival, there is no shortage of women parading in their costumes and their “chieira”, wrapped in unique pieces of traditional gold.
And so, Viana do Castelo becomes the biggest showcase of gold, the stage for unique traditions, from the salt carpets that the faith nourishes, to the fireworks that close each day of the festival that begins amid the excitement and games of the gigantones and cabeçudos.
By night and by day… WE ARE ALL ROMARIA.
Fonte: festasdagonia.com
