The PortugueseCancioneirosof São João: Traditional Popular, Non-Traditional Popular, and Pseudo-Popular (2014)

AbstractThe cancioneiro (song-collection) of São João (St John) is one of the richest manifestations of Portuguese popular culture. In this article, we review the principal bibliography—song collections and studies—devoted to the saint in popular (both traditional and non-traditional) or pseudo-popular song. We examine the symbolic and ethnographic importance of São João in the collective imagery, taking into account the relationship between literary representation and the anthropological and cultural aspects of this festivity. Notes 1 In the present article, all quotations (whether poems or scholarly works) are the authors’ own translations. 2 A similar position was advocated by the Brazilian researcher Luís da Câmara Cascudo, to whom ‘the characteristic elements of folklore are: a) Antiquity b) Persistence c) Anonymity d) Orality … a production … is folk when it becomes anonymous and ancient, resisting oblivion’ (Cascudo Citation1978, 23). 3 One might note the existence of this same repertoire in other countries of Europe and the Americas, especially in Brazil. For example, here are just two of the Brazilian songbooks where quatrains to São João are documented: Cancioneiro do Norte (Cancioneiro of the North) by Rodrigues de Carvalho (1967); and Cancioneiro da Paraíba (Cancioneiro of Paraíba) by Idelete Fonseca dos Santos (1993). 4 Whether by the intervention of the gods (for primitive societies and archaic civilizations) or through Christian pantheism, ‘Nature is never only “natural”: it is always fraught with religious value’ (Eliade Citation1961, 116). 5 Reference to a Portuguese town located by the sea. 6 While it is possible to assign a pagan origin to traditions like the bonfires (as they coincide with ancient rituals to the sun), there is also recognizable overlap with Christian symbols. In this particular case, the bonfires may relate to the tradition of St John the Baptist's birth, as Zechariah had sparked a fire in order to announce the birth of his child. 7 These are usually promoted by public or private entities, such as city councils, parish councils, cultural and recreational associations, or national and regional periodicals. 8 According to the popular poet Jopinas, it was his father who, in 1929, started what is now one of the most prominent traditions of the festival of São João in Porto: ‘He got some wire and suitable paper and started work. He took the verses from the previous year's competition in the Jornal de notícias. He did this for the first time in the year that I was born, in 1929. His name was José Alves do Nascimento. Do write his name in the newspaper, because he was the inventor of this custom’ (Baptista Citation1995, 14). Despite the testimony, stating that there was a competition in 1928, every source that we were able to consult indicates 1929 as the first year of the São João Quatrain Competition run by Jornal de notícias. 9 It is known that some of these participants are even privileged, from a cultural point of view, despite the prevalence of authors from the ‘common people’.10 This same opinion is shared by Germano Silva (Citation2006), who has organized the Competition many times. He says that the aim of Jornal de notícias has been, from the outset, to seek the participation of ‘all Portuguese men and women, especially those who over the centuries have retained within them the marvellous secret of popular inspiration, and from it know how to collect the most precious elements of a rich, varied and very curious folklore, as is the case with the festivities of São João, in general, of those in Porto in particular’ (Silva Citation2006, 226).11 These are references to the mayors of Porto and Lisbon, Rui Rio and António Costa, respectively. The ‘trio’ refers to the three main popular saints in Portugal: Santo António, São Pedro, and São João.12 Curiously, this line—which is one of the most common formulas in the traditional cancioneiro of São João—also occurs in quatrains addressed to other saints of popular devotion, such as São Gonçalo de Amarante (the patron of those in search of marriage, especially at a mature age).Additional informationNotes on contributorsCarlos NogueiraCarlos Nogueira holds a PhD in Portuguese Literature from the University of Porto, Portugal. He is a professor and a researcher at the IELT, Institute for Studies of Traditional Literature (Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, New University of Lisbon, Portugal). He is the author of various essays on anthropology, ethnography, and literature, and of several books on Portuguese and Brazilian literature and culture.Elsa PereiraElsa Pereira holds a PhD in Romance Literatures and Cultures from the University of Porto, Portugal. Although specializing in textual criticism, she has developed a variety of studies on Portuguese and Brazilian literature and culture. Her research is currently affiliated at the CITCEM I&D (Transdisciplinary Research Centre on Culture, Space and Memory—Faculty of Letters, University of Porto, Portugal).