Capela de São Lázaro - Lamego

This chapel is located in the Ponte neighborhood in Lamego.

The traditional celebration of Saint Lazarus takes place in March. From the homage to the Holy Martyr, to the solemn mass in the chapel of S.Lázaro at 10:30 and the traditional sale "do Pito e da Rosca " near the chapel and throughout the Bairro da Ponte.

A spring tradition : At the beginning of Lent , a boy and a girl "hook" their little fingers , that is, they hold their fingers together in a circle (in a hook) and make a bet: every time they meet during Lent, the one who remembers the quickest will tell the other to pray, saying: "Engantchar, engantchar, for Easter Sunday, the moment I see you, I tell you to pray . Pray!" The other must say an Our Father and a Hail Mary. Throughout Lent, they tell each other to pray, depending on the times they meet. The one who first manages to tell the other to pray before sunrise on Easter Sunday wins the bet. If neither of them manages to do so on that day, the last time this happened on any of the previous days counts. If the girl loses, she must offer the boy a "pito" , a regional cake in the shape of a chicken (pito), which is sold on the feast of Saint Lazarus, Lamego, on Lazarus Sunday, but remains available until Easter. If it is the other way around, the boy must offer the girl the rosca , a round cake also sold on Saint Lazarus. The erotic allusion in the names and shapes of these two regional cakes is striking. Probably remnants of distant pagan fertility cults ? It is wiser to speak of courtship games or attempts at mutual seduction. In the past, people also bet on an orange, a rare fruit in the region.

Willem Vandenameele