In the north-eastern region of Portugal, in the town of Podence 40 km from Braganca; carnival is very different from the masked balls of Venice and the Samba of Rio de Janeiro. Here, instead a bunch of young men known as Caretos, dressed in suits made of colourful fringe wool quilts, wearing masks, rattles and cow bells run around the village disguised as devils.
They appear out of nowhere in groups, shout and scream, climb walls and ring their cow bells and dance provocatively around single women, the ensuing three day chaos ends with the burning of a Shrovetide figure. This ancient prehistoric Celtic festival is said to have its roots in agrarian fertility rites and was classified in December 2019 as Intangible Cultural heritage by Unesco.
