Lisbon’s craziest night: June 12, street parties, naughty lyrics & sardines

Lots of festivities in the month of June 🙂 ! Lisbon’s craziest night, June 12, Lisbon turns into one big party! ! 🙂 ! 🙂

In June, the month of the Festas dos Santos Populares (Feast Days of the Popular Saints), the Lisbon nights are filled with lively festivities that take over the city’s historical center

Area Mouraria Lisbon in the month of June, great atmosphere!

The place to be in historical center of Mouraria Lisbon!

Rua Guia, Mouraria, Lisbon.

Stall Luciana Cordeira, Graça & Lisbons’ craziest night June 12, 2022

Feast Days of the Popular Saints &  yearly Saint Anthony (Santo António) traditional festivities

Lisbon, Rua dos Remédios, area Alfama June 2019

Every year mid-June, the time-honoured Santo António celebrations take over the streets of Lisbon, filling them with grilled-sardine and sangria-selling stalls, cheery bunting, and happy people. More..

Lisbon historic area Mouraria in June

Who was matchmaker Saint AnthonySanto António (15 August 1195 – 13 June 1231)?

June 12, 2018: The Saint Anthony’s mass marriages  in Lisbon. Picture: Josephine Lucassen

YouTube weddings (casamentos)

Celebrated since before the 25 April Revolution in 1974, the Santo António weddings are held to give cash-strapped local couples the chance to wed in a large joint ceremony. More…

Area Mouraria Lisbon June 2019, Rua Guia, Mouraria, Lisbon.

Saint Anthony’s bridesYouTube 

The lucky couples receive everything free of charge including the ring, wedding dress and honeymoon as part of an annual competition organised by the city council.

Party time ! Historic area Mouraria June 12, 2018. Picture: Rob van Scherpenseel

Square : Largo da Severa 2 Lisbon

Eating, drinking and dancing together in the narrow streets. On the eve of Saint Anthony day, June 12, Lisbon turns into one big party!  🙂

June 12, 2017

Historical area Mouraria Lisbon & bar Flamingo. Friends Margreet, Rob & Lilja 🙂

YouTube Saint Anthony street parties historic area Mouraria Lisbon

June 12, Eve of Santo Antonio, Mouraria Lisbon the Kings of sardine,  (os reis da sardinha)  😉

People are dancing in the streets on Pimba music

Pimba music – songs frequently driven by metaphors with sexual meanings

An example of Pimba music: ‘Quero cheirar teu bacalhau Maria’  ( I would like to smell your codfish Maria ! 😉 😉 by Quim Barreiros)

Traditional grilled sardinhas (sardines) & salad in June

Grilled sardines recipe by Rochelle Ramos:

Delicious grilled piri piri sardines on crusty bread recipe complete with step-by-step pictures and detailed instructions

Mouraria Lisbon June 12, 2016, Beco do Jasmim & salsa dancing

Everywhere in the streets of the historic areas in Lisbon you see people grilling sardines outside their homes and the narrow streets fill up with people in party mood.

June 12, 2019

Street party Saint Santo Antonio & romantic couple overlooking the festivities 🙂

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Margriet de Vrieze & sardine party 🙂  Mouraria Lisbon

 Festas de Lisboa       Facebook

Waiting for the Mouraria yearly parade 2018…

Picture: Liesbeth Niebling

‘Marchas popularas’ Mouraria area Lisbon 2015.

Yearly parades June 12 : Youtube 2018

At Avenida da Liberdade, from around 8h30 pm, June 12, there’s the yearly parade, with people dressed up in beautiful costumes.

Area Mouraria Lisbon & yearly parade June 12, 2019,  Santo Antonio Marchas Populares

Each group represents one of Lisbon’s twenty neighborhoods There ‘s a winner for the best performance and costumes.

June 12, 2023: Winning area Bica

June 12, 2019 : Lisbon’s craziest night of the year in Mouraria, Lisbon.

Wine, sangria, beer,  sardines, mojitos, caipirinhas, fado, music.

How to reach this area

 Rua Guia, Lisbon, close to square Martim Moniz: metro, tram and bus station

Lisbon Festas populares Santo Antonio craziest night of the uear 2015

Mouraria March June 12, 2015

Lisbon’s Eve of Saint Anthony parade in de streets of Mouraria

June 2016, feast days of the popular saints

Saint João 😉 😉

(sponsor is Sagres, a Portuguese brand of beer)

Bica district Lisbon, famous funicular near Bairro Alto

YouTube  It’s hard to walk there! R. da Bica de Duarte Belo 

The narrow streets in area Bairro Alto (at night) are filled with people in a party mood. Every bar and club shuts its doors and moves its drinks to the windows, or on to tables outside.

June 2019, Lisbon & historical area Alfama

All the streets are decorated with garlands and lights, from Castelo to Mouraria, Graça to Alfama, and Ajuda to Bairro Alto.

Lisbon Santo Antonio basil plants with poems

Manjerico (basil), a symbol of affection & love poems

As a symbol of affection, people present each other with little pots of basil (manjerico) and paper carnations on which they write poems.

During the month of June there are many stalls in the city where you can buy the pots with basil (from 5 – 15 euro) and a selection of poems with various texts

Love poems

não digas que não amas –  “do not say you don’t love me
pois tens a voz a tremer –    because your voice is trembling
quando um não proclamas – when one does not proclaim
um sim pretender dizer” –  it is “yes” you mean to say….

Lisbon Santo Antionio Church candles

Santo Antonio (better known as Saint Anthony of Padua)

Saint Anthony: matchmaker, protector of young brides and patron of the lost and found, was actually born in Lisbon, on the site of this church. MORE…….  Largo Santo Antonio à Sé, Alfama.  

Lisbon Saint Antonio June 12 2015 Rossio

Lisbon, Eve of Saint Anthony festivities. Picture: Luc de Leersnyder

Program & more information about all festivities in Lisbon: Cultura na Rua

MORE …

7 Replies to “Lisbon’s craziest night: June 12, street parties, naughty lyrics & sardines”

  1. Your pictures really capture the atmosphere. Next year I hope to go over when the festival is on as I think it would be a true Lisbon experience 🙂

  2. St. Anthony of Padua Pray For Us..

    Does anyone know the name of the naked female saint that was in the
    St. Anthony June 13th Parade in Lisbon this year. We have pictures but no one knows who it is? Please Email me at hunterdouglas4u@optonline.net — Please Do not reply unless you really know. Thank you..

  3. Dzien dobry.Gratuluje bardzo dobrze napisanego posta.Sporo mozna znalezc w necie na ten temat ale tym artykulem autor wszystko przedstawia jak trzeba.Dzieki!

  4. Dou os meus parabéns ao criador desta página sobre a cidade de Lisboa, no meu maravilhoso país(Portugal).Todos os estrangeiros ficam encantados e maravilhados, mas portugal tem muito mais em outras cidades para se ver, porque cada cidade tem a sua tradição e hábitos.
    Obrigada Meysam Maleki

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