Do you know what popular expression you hear most in Barcelos these days?

There is a popular expression that is often heard around this time every year in Barcelos, especially when, like now, rain is predicted for Easter.

In the land of the Rooster there will be few who have never heard that “if it rains on Easter, it rains on the Crosses”.

It’s because? Now, it’s a joke that aims to give the interlocutor the idea that there is some ancestral tradition that if it rains on Easter Sunday, the same will happen in the municipality’s main pilgrimage, the Festa das Cruzes, which for those from Barcelos are just ‘the Crosses’. And which take place shortly after the Easter festivities.

But the phrase contains a linguistic ‘trick’: the crosses it refers to are those that come out during Easter time and not the one that is the first great pilgrimage in Minho.

In other words, it is a game for the ‘unwary’ that, for as long as anyone can remember, has been encouraging the people of Barcelona at this time.

And this year, with rain forecast for Easter, it promises to be a blast.

The Festa das Cruzes, with or without rain, returns between April 30th and May 5th, with the highlights being concerts by Xutos & Pontapés, Ana Moura and Fernando Daniel.