The Flowered Streets

In 1838, during the festivities of Nossa Senhora de ao Pé da Cruz, Our Lady at the Foot of the Cross, some of Redondo’s residents decorated their doors and windows with paper flowers. It is the oldest record of a tradition born of necessity. In August, with the land scorched by the heat, there are not enough real flowers to decorate a whole town, and the few there are wilt in a day. Paper ones last the whole festival.

For more than a century, the custom came and went. In 1975, thirteen friends came together as the Grupo Pró-Amigos de Redondo and challenged the town to decorate its streets for the Festas do Povo, the People’s Festival. Sixteen streets accepted. At the end, when it came to choosing the most beautiful, the jury, made up of residents from each street, reached a decision that says a great deal about this place: first prize went to all of them.

The tradition stopped again, and in 1993 the town council restarted it, with three streets. It has not stopped growing since. Today it takes place every two years, in August, with more than twenty streets decorated. Around four hundred volunteers spend months cutting, folding and gluing tons of paper. Each street chooses its own theme and keeps it secret until opening day. The neighbours from the next street discover it at the same moment as the visitors.

If you come to Redondo in August of an odd-numbered year, you will walk beneath a sky of paper. If you come at any other time, look at these streets and imagine them covered. Before long, in some room somewhere in town, someone will already be cutting the first flower for the next festival.