Public rejoicing

Besides music and illuminations, which have probably been part of every age, Madeirans formerly expressed their rejoicing in other ways on feast days and national holidays. Frutuoso records that among the festivities held in Funchal to celebrate the birth of Prince João, son of John III, ‘many large and fierce bulls’ were run. The bullfights took place on a square beside the churchyard of Funchal Cathedral (Sé), where cane games were also played and there were other amusements.

On 9 December 1761 Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal) resolved to hold festivities on the news of the birth of Prince José, in accordance with what had already been decided at the session of 29 October of the same year, in view of an official letter from the governor and captain-general. According to the minute book of the Council’s sessions, the festivities consisted of the following: ‘Three days of public illuminations, with all the inventions of fireworks conducive to and necessary for the said celebration; and on the afternoons of the three days to be appointed, on the first there shall be cavalcades, the arena being prepared with the cleanliness necessary and proper for the occasion; on the second a duck shall be run, and on that afternoon there shall be some music carts and other festivities to fill the same afternoon; and on the third afternoon there shall be a pageant of figures on horseback, representing the four parts of the world, and with them the island of Madeira and all its other towns; and besides this celebration there shall also be ring-tilting (argolinha)’.

The game or pastime of ring-tilting (argolinha), in which the rider, at full gallop, had to thread one or more rings placed on the field with a lance, was much enjoyed by Madeirans. It was last held in Funchal a little over thirty years ago.

On days regarded as occasions of national rejoicing, such as royal anniversaries, a hand-kissing ceremony (beija-mão) was held at the Palácio de São Lourenço (St Lawrence Palace) in the days of absolutism. For this purpose the portrait of the reigning monarch was displayed beneath a canopy in one of the palace’s rooms. As a curiosity, we give below the text of a notice sent in 1815 to the councillors (vereadores) of Funchal Municipal Council, on the eve of the anniversary of Queen Maria I, summoning them to attend the ceremony:

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The Most Illustrious Dr Juiz de Fora (crown-appointed judge from outside the district), President, directs and informs Your Honour that on Sunday, the 17th of this month, immediately after the Te Deum, Your Honour is to be present in the hall of the council sessions, so as to proceed from there with the other councillors, in the formal body of the Council, to the Palácio de São Lourenço, where His Excellency the Governor and Captain-General of this State is holding a solemn hand-kissing ceremony to celebrate the happy anniversary of the Most Serene Queen Our Lady.

In earlier times it was customary for official festivities to last three days. There were, for example, great illuminations in Funchal on 4, 5 and 6 January 1803, for the birth of an infante; on 10, 11 and 12 February 1807, for the same reason; on 7, 8 and 9 July 1815, for a religious solemnity in honour of St James the Less; on 11, 12 and 13 October 1823, because the ‘King of Spain had been restored to the fullness of his royal powers’; at the beginning of 1826, because John VI had taken the title of Emperor of Brazil and King of Portugal; on 6, 7 and 8 August of the same year, for the proclamation of the new constitution; on 12, 13 and 14 March 1828, for the arrival of Miguel I in Lisbon; on 7, 8 and 9 February 1829, for the recovery of the same prince; and on 11, 12 and 13 December 1834, for the marriage of Queen Maria II to Prince Auguste, Duke of Leuchtenberg. When Maria II married, the national mourning decreed for the death of Pedro IV, Duke of Bragança, was suspended for three days:

The decree of 19 November 1825 ordered that courts and other public offices should use not wax but oil for their illuminations, with the lights enclosed in lanterns placed on the outside of the windows. It was during the festivities held in Funchal because John VI had taken the title of emperor and king that the Municipal Council first used, at the town hall (Paços do Concelho), the system of illumination recommended in that decree.

The festivities held in Funchal on 28 January 1822 to mark the first anniversary of the proclamation of the Constitution were of unusual splendour, as the description of them in no. 62 of O Patriota Funchalense (‘The Funchal Patriot’) shows. There were many others that would also deserve mention, were we to set out to give an account of every celebration referred to in the newspapers and old documents we have consulted.

In the days of absolutism, failure by the so-called persons of the governance (pessoas da governança, notables eligible for municipal office) to attend the religious or secular ceremonies held to solemnise royal anniversaries was punished with imprisonment in the public gaol or in a fortress. This was also the penalty incurred by those who, without good reason, failed to accompany the procession of Corpus Christi. On gala days the noblemen and other persons of rank in the city were required to illuminate their buildings and to take part in the other official celebrations that it was customary to hold.

In the articles Festas do Espírito Santo, Jogo de Canas, Natal, Procissões, Rambles in Madeira, Romarias, etc., readers will find further information on the festivities, pastimes and celebrations of the Madeirans, almost all of them unofficial. To conclude this account, we shall add only that the custom of greeting the passage from the old year to the new, on the night of 31 December to 1 January, with gunshots, rockets and other fireworks is not very old. It began to become widespread only 45 to 50 years ago (1921), and it is said to have been the late merchant João José Rodrigues Leitão who introduced it to Madeira around 1860 to 1865.