California unites the Portuguese with the death of the pig (a literal translation)
Source Diário do Notícias : 13/11/2007
Tucked way well behing the real headlines of the day, Nacional 0, Marítimo 2, was a not entirely unrelated story.
The Club ‘Sport Marítimo’ of Califonia (USA) last week hosted a gathering joined by nearly a hundred Portuguese to celebrate the ‘death of the pig’.
To celebrate the event in the community founded by madeirans resident in the outskirts of Santa Clara, they acquired an animal for the purpose of holding a traditional party for the ‘death of the pig’ (the local butcher seemingly was all-out of dead pig).
During the event, those present could experience Portuguese specialties, such as ‘crackling’, blood sausage, ‘vinho d’ alhos’, (pork cooked with wine and garlic) along with other delicacies prepared by madeirans and azoreans, such as ‘bolo do caco’ (bread made with sweet potato) and cabbage soup.
It was in the form of a simple party, where the organization was striving to recollect the past on the island of Madeira, reenacting the ‘death of the pig’ ceremony, that is very traditional on the Island of the Madeira.
Now, I am all in favour of a good party, and I have no desire to spoil someone else’s fun, or stamp out old traditions. BUT, this is one custom that does turn my stomach a little. OK, I know most the people on earth eat pork at some time or another, and probably don’t care to think about how it arrived on the dinner plate … but excuse me … celebrating the death of a creature that has been a friend, ally, and even in cases an icon to mankind for thousands of years, is surely a little outdated and unprincipled, and I am sure such behaviour does not form part of either the religious or educational teachings on Madeira. I have heard gruesome accounts about the killing of the pig, but having never witnessed this event, I am unable to say how humane it is.
A fine example being set to the kids here in respect of animal respect and welfare on an island that already has far too many problems of that nature. And in retribution, I would not be surprised to hear that a bunch of zany yanks were at this very minute plotting a multimillion dollar lawsuit on behalf of Percy the pig.
