The Carnival of Podence and its Caretos, explained

What the Carnival of Podence is

The Carnival of Podence is a winter festivity of one village. UNESCO inscribed it in 2019 on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity under the name "Winter festivities, Carnival of Podence", describing a celebration of the end of winter and the arrival of spring held in the village's streets and in the houses of neighbours who visit one another.[1] Locally it has another name: the municipality of Macedo de Cavaleiros says the Carnaval dos Caretos de Podence is better known as the "Entrudo Chocalheiro".[3]

Podence is a village, not a town in its own right. The Caretos' association places it in the municipality of Macedo de Cavaleiros, in the district of Bragança, in Portugal's north-east.[4] XTOUR has no destination there and no route or travel information for reaching it.

Who the Caretos are

The Caretos are the masked figures at the centre of the festivity. UNESCO describes them dancing around women with their cowbells, moving their hips in rhythm, an action it calls possibly connected to old fertility rites and performed from behind the mask as a way of interacting with others anonymously.[1] The municipality calls the gesture the "chocalhadas" and describes it as aimed mainly at women.[3]

The role has widened. UNESCO says the practice began as a rite of passage for men and is now extended to women and children.[1] The Caretos' own association is more specific: once taken by young unmarried men, the role is now filled by Caretos of varied age and marital status, by the youngest participants, whom it calls "facanitos", and by girls wearing the costumes of fathers, uncles or brothers. The masked figures, the association adds, are not only residents: they include descendants of the village who live in other towns or abroad and return for Carnival.[4]

The association also records how close the tradition came to ending. Its ritual page says it was on the point of disappearing in the 1960s and 1970s, because of emigration and the colonial war.[4]

The costume, and three accounts of the mask

All three sources agree on the fringes. UNESCO describes costumes covered with colourful wool fringes and small bells; the municipality names the fringe colours as red, yellow and green.[3][1] The association's costume page says the fringes were once hand-dyed sheep's wool made from bedspreads woven in the village and are now often synthetic, that yellow, green and red are the usual colours today, and that blue, pink or black appear on some older costumes. It describes two crossed bandoliers of small bells and 4 to 8 cowbells at the waist, the bells mostly coming from the Alentejo today.[5]

The mask is where the three accounts part:

• UNESCO says the masks are of tinplate or leather.[1]
• The municipality says they are of wood or tin.[3]
• The Caretos' association illustrates two masks, one in leather (cabedal) and one in brass (latão), and says a young maker has recently revived the leather mask his grandfather made.[5]

XTOUR's reading is that a metal mask appears in all three accounts and a leather one in two, while only the municipality mentions wood; none of the pages says which material is commonest.

What happens over the festivity

UNESCO describes a sequence across the days. On the Monday night a group of men stage a play announcing a fictional list of engaged couples, satirising them; on Shrove Tuesday some people mask themselves as "matrafonas", a character from rural carnivals; and on Tuesday afternoon a Shrovetide figure is burned, after which the Caretos go round the homes of friends and relatives.[1] The association adds that the Caretos climb onto balconies and enter some houses, where they are often invited to eat and drink, and that their behaviour is more moderate than in earlier decades.[4]

UNESCO's decision says transmission happens mainly in the home, and that the Carnival is a time when families and friends are reunited.[2] Its element text credits the Group of Caretos Association with having considerably boosted opportunities for transmission.[1] The association's own page says it was founded in 2002, organises the Entrudo Chocalheiro, and opened the Casa do Careto, a museum space in Podence, in 2004.[6]

Three days or four

The sources do not agree on the festivity's length, and XTOUR does not choose between them.

• UNESCO says the festivity takes place over three days.[1]
• The municipality says the Entrudo Chocalheiro lasts four days.[3]
• The association's ritual page places the festivity between Domingo Gordo and Carnival Tuesday, and says the Caretos go out "as a rule" on the three days of Carnival.[4]
• The association's 2027 event page announces the Entrudo Chocalheiro for four days, from Saturday 6 to Tuesday 9 February 2027.[7]

XTOUR's reading is that the three days may count the Carnival ritual itself and the four days the organised event that now begins on the Saturday, but none of the pages says so in those terms. As of 9 October 2026, the association said the official programme for 2027 would be announced soon; XTOUR has not seen it and states no event times.[7]

How UNESCO's decision names the village

UNESCO's decision text describes the Carnival as involving "all the inhabitants of the small village of Macedo of Cavaleiros".[2] Macedo de Cavaleiros is the municipality; the village, in the municipality's and the association's own pages, is Podence.[4][3] XTOUR follows the municipality and the association.

What XTOUR does not know

XTOUR does not know the 2027 programme, how visitors reach Podence, where they can stay, or whether any part of the festivity is ticketed. It publishes no crowd, safety, parking or accessibility information, and does not say how a visitor should respond to a Careto's cowbells. Last year's programme, if one was published, is not a guide to the next.

For Portugal's other practices on UNESCO's lists, see Portugal's intangible heritage; for the country as a whole, the Portugal country page.