New publication: Moors and Christians Festivals. Festive Cultures Reinterpreted

The book Festas de Mouros e Cristãos. Culturas Festivas Ressignificadas (Festivals of Moors and Christians. Festive Cultures Reinterpreted), edited by Rita Ribeiro and Emília Araújo, is published today.

‘Grand and multitudinous, with a long history and active in many countries on different continents (…) they celebrate, recreate and co-create the waves of the historic encounter and reunion between Christianity and Islam.’ This is how those responsible for the publication refer to the festivities of Moors and Christians: the work “was created with the aim of deepening the dialogue between different perspectives of study and analysis of very diverse and geographically distant festivals, but which are simultaneously close in cultural, historical and symbolic terms. It includes chapters written by researchers from different disciplinary fields (anthropology, sociology, history) and contexts, within the scope of research based on diverse methodologies that privilege the comprehensive and interpretative dimensions in their approach to the festivals of Moors and Christians.” Here we find contributions from Gil-Manuel Hernàndez i Martí, José Fernando Domene Verdú, Albert Alcaraz Santonja, Marlène Albert Llorca, Luís Cunha, Bruno Goulart Machado Silva and Amanda Geraldes.

In this regard, there is a popular tradition in Sobrado, in the municipality of Valongo, that has been the subject of study for many years, most recently in the Festivity project: A Bugiada e Mouriscada, which takes place annually during the festivities of São João and was also the subject of a documentary made in 2022 by Silvana Torricella.

The book is available here.

[Posted: 29-10-2025]