Festa dos Tabuleiros

Name: Festa dos Tabuleiros
Location: Tomar

Tomar’s Spectacular Festival of Bread, Flowers, and Community

2023/07/01 - 2023/07/09

Once every four years, the central Portuguese town of Tomar is transformed by the Festa dos Tabuleiros (Festival of the Trays), a breathtaking celebration of color and tradition. For ten days in early July, hundreds of thousands gather in this historic Templar city for one of Portugal’s most extraordinary spectacles: a grand parade of women balancing towering trays adorned with bread and flowers on their heads. Whether you’re a history buff, a culture lover, or simply seeking an unforgettable experience, this is one of Portugal’s most immersive and sensory-rich festivals.

While the main parade is a once-in-a-lifetime sight, the entire town becomes a stage during the festival. Streets are blanketed with millions of handmade paper flowers, balconies are draped with colorful quilts, and the air is filled with the scent of fresh bread, music, and laughter. People of all ages and backgrounds come together, making this a celebration of solidarity, art, and faith that unites Tomar’s community and its visitors.

Main Attractions

The Parade of the Trays (Cortejo dos Tabuleiros)

The heart of the festival is the Parade of the Trays. More than 700 women and girls, dressed in pure white with colorful sashes, walk the streets balancing trays as tall as themselves on their heads. Each tabuleiro is made of 30 loaves of bread (about 400g each) threaded onto canes, lavishly decorated with wheat stalks and thousands of paper flowers. At the top sits a crown, often featuring a white dove (symbolizing the Holy Spirit) or the Cross of Christ.

Each woman is accompanied by a male partner in black trousers, white shirt, and a tie matching her sash, ready to help if the tray becomes too heavy. The 5km parade route is lined with flower-covered streets, crowds, ringing church bells, showers of petals, children’s flower basket parades, and live band music. The spectacle is both a physical feat and a moving display of community pride and endurance.

Decorated Streets, Traditional Games, and Nightly Music

The “Ruas Populares Ornamentadas” (decorated streets) are a festival highlight. Residents spend months crafting themed displays from millions of paper flowers, turning the town into a living art gallery. There’s fierce competition for the best-decorated street, and the unveiling night is a major event.

Other traditions include the Boys’ Parade, the Mordomo Parade, partial processions, traditional games, and, at night, concerts in the park ranging from fado to jazz. The aroma of grilled meats and local wine drifts through the summer air, adding to the festive atmosphere.

Costumes and Decorations

Women wear white blouses and layered skirts with colorful sashes and beige suede shoes. Men wear black trousers, white shirts, and ties matching their partner’s sash. The tabuleiros are towers of bread, wheat, and flowers. Houses and balconies are decorated with quilts and paper flowers, enveloping the town in a dreamlike palette of color.

Traditional Food and Sharing

Bread is the festival’s symbol and centerpiece, but visitors can also enjoy roasted meats, sausages, cheeses, and traditional sweets. On the Monday after the main parade, the “Pêza” takes place: blessed bread, meat, and wine are distributed to the poor and to festival-goers, embodying the festival’s spirit of sharing and solidarity.

Cultural and Historical Background

The Festa dos Tabuleiros dates back to the 13th–14th centuries, blending ancient pre-Roman fertility rituals with the Catholic “Cult of the Holy Spirit.” The festival was formalized by the Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit, founded by Queen Isabel (Saint Elizabeth of Portugal), to encourage charity and universal solidarity.

The tabuleiros symbolize offerings from each family for the symbolic building of the Heavenly Jerusalem. Bread, wheat, and flowers represent both Christian and ancient fertility traditions. The modern form of the festival was established in 1950, but surrounding villages still maintain older rituals such as the “Coronation of the Emperor” and the “Bodo” (feast).

Today, the Festa dos Tabuleiros is one of Portugal’s largest and oldest festivals, with up to 600,000 people attending the parade. It remains a powerful symbol of Tomar’s pride, solidarity, and generosity.

Participant Voices

“I came from abroad just to see this parade. The colors, the music, the scent of fresh bread and flowers-it felt like a dream, and the people of Tomar welcomed me as if I were family.”

Fun Facts

Each tabuleiro is topped with a white dove (Holy Spirit) or the Cross of Christ.
The paper flowers for street decorations are handmade by residents over the course of a year, totaling millions.
The tabuleiro tradition is said to have roots in ancient Roman festivals honoring Ceres, the goddess of fertility.