Portuguese Holy Thursday traditions
Holy Thrusday or Maundy Thursday is famous in Portugal for the nightly "Ecce Homo" or Senhor dos Passos ("Lord of the Steps" or "Stations") Procession (reproducing the presenting of the captured Jesus by Pilate to the crowd, being the day of the washing of the feet, last supper and capture and trial). The most noted element of it in Portugal are the farricocos , men who dress all in black cloaks and carry sticks that carry bowls on fire or sticks that turn around and make snapping or cracking sounds. They were originally a pre-Christian pagan tradition probably named after the farricoque (the digitalis flower in the Galician language with same root as Portuguese where it is called dedaleira ) and coco (a generic Galician-Portuguese term for ghosts or boggeymen associated to cut-off heads of enemies with similar Ibero-American equivalents), in which people dressed in black representing ghosts came to " lançar as pulhas " ("casting the scou...