When do the Caretos of Podence come out?

During the Entrudo, before Lent. The great runs of the Caretos take place on Shrove Sunday and Shrove Tuesday, but the celebrations of the Rattling Entrudo extend over several days of Carnival.

What are the masks and costumes of the Caretos made of?

The masks, with angular features and a prominent nose, are made of tin, leather or wood, often painted red, yellow and black. The costume, once made from red bedspreads, is covered with fringes of coloured wool — red, yellow and green — and girded by a row of bells.

Caretos of Podence: Winter Festivals and Carnival of Podence

Q: Why were the Caretos of Podence recognised by UNESCO?

In December 2019, at the 14th session of the Intergovernmental Committee in Bogotá, UNESCO inscribed the Winter Festivals, Carnival of Podence, on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (decision 14.COM 10.b.30, reference 01463), recognising a community rite that marks the end of winter and reinforces the village's identity.

Q: Where is Podence?

Podence is a small village in the municipality of Macedo de Cavaleiros, in the district of Bragança, in Trás-os-Montes, north-eastern Portugal.

The Caretos of Podence are the central figure of the Rattling Entrudo of this small Trás-os-Montes village in the municipality of Macedo de Cavaleiros, in the district of Bragança. Dressed in costumes covered with fringes of coloured wool — red, yellow and green —, faces hidden behind masks of tin, leather or wood and waists laden with bells, they run and leap through the streets during the days of Carnival, in a noisy and ancient ritual that marks the end of winter and the arrival of spring. In December 2019, UNESCO inscribed the Winter Festivals, Carnival of Podence on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (reference 01463).

A winter rite of Trás-os-Montes

The Carnival of Podence belongs to the cycle of winter festivals, associated with the passage of the cold season and the renewal of agrarian cycles. The height of the festival takes place between Shrove Sunday and Shrove Tuesday, but the celebrations of the Rattling Entrudo extend over several days.

The Caretos go out in groups and roam the streets, sounding their bells in an unmistakable cadence. Under the anonymity of the mask, they chase and surround above all the unmarried girls, dancing around them with a rhythmic movement of the hips — the so-called «chocalhada» (the rattling). This playful and provocative gesture echoes an ancient symbolic dimension, associated with fertility, and enacts a temporary inversion of everyday order: controlled transgression releases tensions and, paradoxically, reaffirms the bonds of the community.

The Careto does not speak: he communicates through gesture, through the mask and through the din of the bells. The mask does not merely hide the face — it suspends, for a few days, the rules of the village, only to return them renewed.

Originally, the festival was a male rite of passage, carried out mainly by the village’s young men; today it has extended to women and children. The youngest, the facanitos, imitate the Caretos and learn early on to wear the costume, ensuring the generational renewal of the tradition.

The mask, the costume and the bells

The attire is an essential part of the identity of the Careto. The costume, once made from red bedspreads and domestic blankets, is covered with dense and striking wool fringes. The mask, the piece that distinguishes each figure, has angular features and strong colours — red, yellow and black —, with a prominent nose; it is made of tin, leather or wood.

At the waist runs the row of bells that gives the Rattling Entrudo its name and makes sound as striking an element as appearance. It is a direct link to another practice recognised by UNESCO, the manufacture of bells, which arms each Careto with his symphony of metal.

From near extinction to the world stage

Like many rural traditions of Trás-os-Montes, the Carnival of Podence came close to disappearing. In the 1960s, emigration and the colonial war emptied the village of young people, and in the 1970s only two or three costumes remained. Continuity owed much to a revitalisation movement that culminated, in 1985, in the organisation of the Caretos into a cultural association — the Associação Grupo de Caretos de Podence —, committed to restoring the costumes, preserving the memory and ensuring transmission. In 2004 the Casa do Careto opened, with the support of the Macedo de Cavaleiros Municipal Council, a space for exhibition and interpretation of the festival.

This associative structure was decisive for the nomination to UNESCO, approved on 12 December 2019, in Bogotá, during the 14th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (decision 14.COM 10.b.30). The recognition came with a safeguarding plan, and the challenge today is to balance renown — the Carnival attracts tens of thousands of visitors — with the preservation of the communal character that has always defined the festival.

A symbol of the north-east and of Iberian Carnival

The Caretos of Podence form part of a wider family of Iberian winter masks and masqueraders, whose origin is often associated with ancient cults of fertility and seasonal renewal. Their silhouette — red, green and yellow fringes, angular mask, resounding bells — has become one of the visual icons of northern Portugal.

The inscription placed Podence alongside other recognised Portuguese community expressions, such as the Festas do Povo de Campo Maior, within the body of Portugal’s intangible cultural heritage. More than a tourist attraction, the Rattling Entrudo remains, for the villagers, an annual gesture of belonging and a living testimony to the capacity of a small community to safeguard and renew its memory.