Aporias and paradoxes in a winter party in the northeast of Portugal

In several villages of Tras-os-Montes, north-eastern Portugal, the winter cycle ceremonies are of great spectacular character. The festivals involve collective commensality -generalized or restricted to some social segments - masses, public collection, dances, physical dexterity games, and social criticism. Associated with agriculture in a long time, the winter feasts in Varge constituted a moment of introspection of the village, circumscribed in time. The mask feasts were a counterpoint to the summer festivities, of great openness to the neighbouring villages, during which the town became host. In a milieu in which the rural has become less agricultural, drained by flows of people who migrate and study abroad, this rural festival takes on new forms today. The purpose of this text is to interrogate, in a long time, the relation between "outside" and "inside", inserting the ceremonies of the winter cycle in a process. I try to respond to the apparent paradox between the decrease in the number of residents and the growth of participation in the party and its derivations, especially in the parades performed in various places in Portugal and Europe. My central argument is based on the appropriation of popular culture in differentiated and contemporary situations, sending to coexistence and transition between types of connection with the celebrations.