The tradition of the Maios is back to the village of Santa Rita and the beach of Manta Rota (parish of Vila Nova de Cacela) on the Labor Day holiday, May 1.
In Santa Rita, the initiative is organized by the Municipality of Vila Real de Santo António, through the Heritage Research and Information Center of Cacela, and by the local population, and can be visited throughout the day, in the streets of the village, allowing the revival of this ancient festive tradition so characteristic of the region.
Also this year, the Association “Santa Rita, A Nossa Aldeia” is organizing a “Mercadinho dos Maios”, between 10am and 5pm, bringing even more animation to the village.
In Manta Rota, the tradition is revived by the association “A Manta” and by Maria Cândida Justo Romano, popularly known as “Candinhas”. The Maios exhibition can be visited on the Dr. Luís Medeiros Antunes road, on the Manta Rota road (from the pedestrian zone and up to the old casino/tourist office) and next to the public bathhouse.
In the Algarve, in many places, it is customary, on the first day of May, to create the Maios or Maias, decorate them and place them in the street. These are life-sized puppets and dolls representing people, filled with straw, rags, crumpled newspapers and dressed in old clothes.
They are made by the people with simplicity and improvisation, commonly accompanied by reproductions of animals, objects of common use, staging daily activities, with relevant sayings in prose or verse.
Puppets or living characters such as the Mayas (now less frequent) are reminiscent of archaic customs linked to the end of winter and the dawn of spring that signaled the renewal of nature and symbolized the fruitful power of blossoming vegetation.
Village in the parish of Vila Nova de Cacela, municipality of Vila Real de Santo António. It is located in a transition zone between the Barrocal and the Serra. Its cultural heritage includes a megalithic tomb, an 18th century chapel dedicated to Saint Rita, a shrine also dedicated to Saint Rita of unknown origin and some houses of typical style. Near the village there are also some lime ovens, an activity that together with coal production played in the past an important role in the local economy.
