THE MIGRANT HOLY SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit is the most incredible feast of the Azorean people, and its celebration is the bond between our communities.
Its devotion is intertwined with our history, and its dimension is projected into our diaspora.
It is commemorated in the 9 islands, all 19 municipalities, all 155 parishes, and almost all 17 Houses of the Azores in Portugal, Brazil, the United States, Canada, Uruguay, and Bermuda.
For this reason, the Day of the Azores is associated with the Monday of the Divine Holy Spirit, which the Azorean parliament deliberated on in 1980.
The festivities in honor of the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity are a traveling ritual.
Originating in mainland Portugal at the beginning of the 14th century, they traveled to the Azores archipelago from the 16th century onwards.
Here, they have been a dominant part of popular culture ever since.
From here, they traveled to Brazil, from the 17th century onwards, assuming a significant presence, from north to south, in different and distant states such as Maranhão, Minas Gerais, Goiás, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.
At the end of the 19th century, following the Azorean diaspora, they traveled to North America.
They first appeared in the United States, from California to New England, especially in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Florida, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, and Montana.
They then took hold in Canada, in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Alberta.
And they even reach the archipelagos of Hawaii and Bermuda.
The Feasts of the Divine in Azorean communities have the antiquity and representativeness of our diaspora.
In Brazil, for example, the Azorean feast of the Holy Spirit was celebrated in Mogi das Cruzes, in the state of São Paulo, in 1723; in Santo António da Patrulha, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in 1763; or in Florianópolis, in the state of Santa Catarina, in 1773—the latter celebrating a quarter of a millennium in 2023.
More recent is our emigration and devotion to North America.
The first wave of this Azorean emigration took place between 1870 and 1930, and it went to the United States and Hawaii.
In the 60s and 80s, the second wave added Canada and Bermuda.
Today, more than 1.8 million people of Portuguese origin live in North America.
Almost a million and a half in the United States, 90% of whom are of Azorean origin.
Almost half a million in Canada, 70%, come from the Azores.
Linked to these two migratory waves, the popular movement of religious recreation of festivals in praise of the Holy Spirit is said to have emerged in California in 1865 and arrived in Massachusetts with the Fall River festival in 1877.
The first historical record in Canada dates back to 1962, when the Feast of Cambridge was held in Ontario.
According to a recent survey coordinated by João Leal, Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the New University of Lisbon, there are now almost 300 festivals of the Holy Spirit in North America.
There are more than 200 festivals in the United States: 99 in California, 91 in New England, 6 in Florida, and 5 in other states such as Colorado or Montana.
There are around 90 festivals in Canada: 59 in Ontario, 11 in Quebec, 7 in British Columbia, and 10 in other provinces, such as Manitoba or Alberta.
In Canada, 87 Azorean festivals honor the Divine Holy Spirit. 49% are held according to the model prevailing in São Miguel and 14% according to that of Terceira Island; 31% take place on Pentecost Sunday and 16% on Trinity Sunday; 43% are organized by autonomous brotherhoods, and 32% are directly linked to the church.
This way, we are so far from our land and feel close to our culture.
As our people say, Long live the Divine Holy Spirit!

---

José Andrade is the Regional Director for Communities in the Government of the Autonomous Region of the Azores
Based on a text from his book Transatlântico – As Migrações nos Açores (2023)