Chamarita

This past Sunday was the annual Portuguese celebration called the Holy Ghost Festival, or as it's most commonly called in these parts, Chamarita weekend.  The I.D.E.S. Society in Half Moon Bay, (I.D.E.S. stands for The Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit in Portuguese) puts on the festival every year and when I was younger, it was the highlight of my year!  My family has, for generations, been very involved in this society so I grew up being involved in the parade every year.  My father has been president of the society, as were two of my great-uncles.  Every year there are two queens(a little queen and big queen) that represent Queen Isabella of Portugal.  I have a lot of relatives that have been queens, including my great-aunt who was queen in 1931, and I always wanted to be the queen but never got to.  I don't care anymore but when I was in high school, it was all I wanted!  Since Kyle is part Portuguese, I wanted to take him to the parade and I hope that as he gets older, he can be a part of the parades, just as I was.

Robert and Kyle before the parade

                                                            

                                                                                                                                                                                              

The Lady of Fatima and all the kids holding up a sign for each of the Azores Islands, which is where the origination of the festival lies.  Most of the Portuguese people in Half Moon Bay are either from the Azores Islands (My great-grandparents were from the island of Terceira.)

The is the 2009 Big Queen for HMB.  They wear the most beautiful capes.  See the girls standing on either side of the queen?  They are called sidemaids-I was a sidemaid three times!  You still get to wear a cape-it's just a shorter one.  

A little boat carrying bags of Portuguese sweet bread...so yummy!

band members carrying the American and Portuguese flags.