Festa dos Tabuleiros in Tomar(Portugal), july/2023.

It began as a harvest festival in honor of Ceres, the Roman goddess of harvests, agriculture and fertility. An example of many other paid festivals, it was assimilated as a Christian festival around the 13th century.

The size of the tray corresponds to the girl’s height. It consists of thirty loaves, as many as Christ's wounds. In total, it weighs around 15 kilos.

The ribbons on the panels represent the colors of the 16 parishes of Tomar.

Since the 1950s and 1960s, the color of the ribbons must match the men's tie.

In the procession, the girls march outside, except on the short streets of the city, where they pass inside, so that the trays do not collide with the balconies.

This video shows how an entire city dresses up in paper flowers during the festival. This was the urban context from which the photographic moments on this page were taken.