The Christian liturgical cycle offers the faithful a form of “true, ongoing formation.” According to Pope Francis,¹ “In celebrating the mysteries of Christ throughout the year, the community does not merely recall events of the past: it learns to live according to Christ and to integrate faith into daily life.” The intensity of this spiritual experience unfolds through a succession of stages beginning with the Nativity of Jesus and continuing through His public ministry, His Death and Resurrection, and the descent of the Holy Spirit. Each of these liturgical seasons contains a profound penitential dimension, directed toward personal and collective renewal, although it assumes particular prominence during Lent.
Once the Easter celebrations have concluded, the Catholic Church commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, whose enduring presence within the Church was foretold by Jesus: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8).
More than two thousand years later, the People of God in these islands—and in the distant lands to which they emigrated—continue to sustain the living faith that it is the Spirit who guides the Church and instills within the hearts of the faithful the true meaning of Charity, expressed through sharing, solidarity, and mutual assistance. It is for this reason that the festivities held in honor of the Holy Spirit extend throughout the summer months, not only in the traditional Coroações, or Coronations, celebrated in fulfillment of vows, often sponsored by emigrants, but also in charitable banquets and communal meals.
Alongside these celebrations are the festivals honoring local patron saints. In all of them, one encounters an unmistakable expression of communal joy, embodied in ancestral gestures and customs that remain alive within the identity and collective memory of Christians and non-Christians alike.
Throughout the centuries, the Catholic Church, as “Mother and Teacher,” has learned to respond to the circumstances brought about by the evolution of society. At times, it has done so imperfectly or in ways ill-suited to the realities before it. Yet, because it is composed of human beings, it has always carried within itself the desire to discern a more fitting path. Whenever this did not occur, the faithful, guided by their common sense and popular wisdom, found their own ways of affirming their faith. The various rituals associated with devotion to the Holy Spirit are eloquent examples of this. Some of these practices were misunderstood and disapproved of by ecclesiastical authorities, who acted without first seeking dialogue or consensus.
The summer festivals, the great majority of which are dedicated to Our Lady, retain a powerful dimension of popular tradition that has remained largely unchanged. In Lajes do Pico, although whaling itself has long since disappeared, the feast in honor of Our Lady of Lourdes continues to preserve the rituals of the solemn Sunday procession.
Midway along its route, the procession pauses before the harbor. A sermon is delivered from the bow of a whaleboat, after which the sacred image makes its way toward the boats, their sails fully raised, lining the processional route as they once did before the former boathouses, now home to the Whalers’ Museum. From the bow of the whaleboat—the very place from which the harpooner once cast his iron—an elderly whaler or one of his descendants encircles the image with the rope that once tethered the whale. It is a gesture of profound communion with the Patroness of the Whalers, who watched over those who earned their livelihood through that perilous calling.
Whaling came to an end in 1987. The surviving whalers can now be counted on the fingers of one hand. Nevertheless, most of the population beyond middle age still remembers the gestures of supplication, uncertainty, and anguish displayed by the whale hunters during the processions of former days—gestures born of an intimate awareness of the dangers they faced whenever they ventured out to sea.
The whale hunt has since been replaced by a flourishing whale-watching industry conducted aboard motorized vessels. Yet the ancient maritime procession of Lajes includes none of these boats, nor their crews, nor those whose livelihoods now depend upon this activity. This absence is not without significance, for it may reveal either a lack of familiarity with the religious meaning of the celebration or the signs of an increasingly secularized society.
The Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes of former times has, in recent decades, come to be known as Whalers’ Week, acquiring a strong musical and festival character, while also encompassing ethnographic and sporting dimensions. Its religious program includes the traditional novena, a candlelight procession, and a maritime procession along the waterfront of Lajes, featuring vessels associated with traditional fishing.
With the construction of the coastal avenue on the site of the former football field, musical performances, exhibitions, commercial stalls, and food venues have become concentrated within the surrounding buildings and public spaces. It is there that, throughout the week, hundreds upon hundreds of people gather for Pico’s final great annual festival.
As in other communities where whaling once flourished—including Cais do Pico, São Mateus, São João, Santa Cruz das Ribeiras, Calheta de Nesquim, and Piedade—rowing and sailing regattas rank among the festival’s most eagerly anticipated attractions. Whaleboats from other islands, particularly Faial and São Jorge, also take part in these competitions. Young men and women compete in the rowing events, while the sailing crews are sometimes mixed.
Ultimately, the symbols of whaling are preserved, bearing witness to the distinctive virtues of the whalers themselves: their physical strength, their courage in confronting the dangers of the sea and the immensity of the marine giant, and their abiding faith in their Patroness—she who is also the “honor and glory of our People.”
Translated by Diniz Borges