Lenços de Namorados - Lover’s Squares

Many moons ago, my mom told me a romantic story about the “Lenços dos Namorados” the Lover’s handkerchiefs. I had completely forgotten about the story, until I recently walked into a Lisbon shop “A Vida Portuguesa” and found a book on this very subject, Lenços de Namorados, escritas de AMOR - Lover’s Squares, Words of Love. This wonderful little book not only shows colourful photos of embroidered squares; it also gives the name of the embroiderer and history behind each square (if known).

Escritas De Amor

Lover’s Squares originated in the north of Portugal, in the Minho region, and by the early 1900’s had spread throughout the country. These very special squares started from crisp white linen or cotton, then were hand embroidered in various colours by young girls of marrying age (or sometimes commissioned by boys) as a declaration of their love for the object of their affection. How romantic is that?!

Chocolate Festival - Obidos

Any guesses on the worlds #1, most popular flavour? Well its dark, sweet, rich and delicious…surpasses age; gender, culture, creed and people have even been known to lie about it… any clue? Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate…if you haven’t guessed.

And in just a few days there’s going to be an entire 2-week Chocolate Festival here in Portugal, in the tiny village of Obidos, just north of Lisbon. From what we hear, there will be chocolate sculptures, fashions, recipe contest and lots of chocolate eating. So, whether you like Dark, Milk, Semi Sweet, Bitter, White…you can fill that gap of indulgence and then some with chocolate treats from all over the country.

Obidos Chocolate Festival

We simply can’t miss this - Obidos is a magical little place embraced by huge stone walls protecting a medieval castle inside, and feels a lot like a mini medieval wonderland year round. So I can only imagine what it will look like swathed in people and chocolate for two entire weeks. So we’ll be making the trip from the Algarve up to Obidos to check it out for ourselves and we’ll update this post with pictures from our trip. For now here are some pictures from previous years.

Sao Martinho & Chestnut Festival

Today’s a special day, especially if you like chestnuts, wine and good deeds. This is the day from top to bottom of Portugal, we celebrate Sao Martinho (Saint Martin’s Day), and we do it with Chestnuts and Aqua Pe.

First you may be asking who is Sao Martinho and what is Aqua Pe? Well the story of Sao Martin goes something like this;

Sao Martinho (St. Martin), born around 317 AD, he was a Roman solider who belonged to the Roman Empire and held the spiritual beliefs of Roman mythology. At the time, Roman Mythology was very inward looking towards the Empire and had little consideration for others. On a particularly dreadful winter day, Martin was caught in a downpour of rain with only his cape to protect him. While riding to get out of the horrible weather he was approached by a beggar, half naked with hardly a thread to cover him from the cold weather.

Martin didn’t have any change to help the man but was moved by the man’s misery - he grabbed his sword - reached back for his wool cape, cut it in half and covered the beggar. The other soldiers riding with Martin laughed that he was giving way his protection. But legend has it when Martin covered the beggar the clouds drifted and beams of sun lit up the sky.

The following day, Martin heard a voice through a dream, “Every time you do a good deed for your less fortunate and unprotected bothers, you are doing onto me”. From this day on, he began looking at and treating people differently. Martin died on November 8th, 397 AD and was laid to rest in the city of Tours, France on November 11th. He was later canonized as a saint. Sao Martinho is celebrated throughout Europe on this day, with many agriculture fairs, feasts, festivals and especially by wine makers.