Tomar Bread Festival

The Festa dos Tabuleiros (Festival of the Trays) or Festa do Divino Espírito Santo (Feast of the Holy Spirit), takes place every four years in July in Tomar, Portugal.This festival is an ancient tradition, and the most important celebrated in the city, attracting people from all over the world. The local population parades in pairs with the girls carrying tabuleiros on their heads. The tabuleiro is made of 30 stacked pieces of bread, either in 6 rows of 5 or 5 rows of 6, decorated with flowers. At the top of the tabuleiro is a crown which normally contains either a white dove, symbolising the Holy Spirit, or the esfera armilar (armillary sphere), a symbol of the historical Portuguese maritime expansion, and over the sphere, the cross of  the Order of Christ

In addition to the Parade, the Festival is made up of various traditional ceremonies like the Procession of the Crowns, the Procession of the Boys, the Procession of the Mordomo or the arrival of the bulls of the Holy Spirit, also by the Partial Parades and Popular Games.

In the day after the Parade or Procession, the tradition of the Pêzais is still maintained, which is the sharing of bread and meat by the population.

In addition to the procession, the town is decorated with colourful garlands of paper flowers.