RIVAR-REVISTA IBEROAMERICANA DE VITICULTURA AGROINDUSTRIA Y RURALIDAD, cilt.8, sa.23, ss.220-238, 2021 (ESCI, Scopus)
The synchronicity of the agrarian cycles with the festive periods of rurality in the Iberian Peninsula is a remnant of the celebration in the early days of agriculture where the gift celebrated is that of the earth. In Tras-os-Montes, particularly in the Barroso region, Portugual, a syncretism between the paganism of the land, its products and the figures of the saints, appropriated first popularly and later by canonical religion, has been fertile since immemorial times. In different towns of Barroso, Samdo, Gondides and Salto, the frontiers of popular identity between the divine and the profane are latent in the importance of the agrarian cycle and in the sacralization of their products that protects them "from plague, hunger and the war"-as goes the prayer to the patron saint sao Sebastiao. Through semi-structured interviews with villagers, organizers of the S. Sebastiao festivities, but also with specialists in tradition, a reflection on the popular expression of the affection for their saint is proposed. The origins of the tradition in times of past anguish and especially in the communitarianism that is celebrated, define the popular identity of Barroso.