Several Portuguese towns and villages celebrate Carnaval, or Mardi Gras, in the week before Lent. Whilst the celebrations usually include decorated floats and samba dancers, perhaps the most intriguing of them all is the is the Celtic tradition of Caretos, still practiced in the small village of Podence. The tradition involves masked men, dressed in colourful costumes, who run around the village, accosting women and ‘rattling’ them. It is a part of the local culture that we had to see for ourselves.

Podence is a small village located near Bragança, and a 1 hour and 40 minutes drive from Porto, along the A4 motorway. A check of the Caretos de Podence website showed us that the caretos would be doing their thing on Shrove Sunday and Shrove Tuesday, starting at 3.00pm. We decided to visit on the Sunday, and rode our motorcycle there. The fields surrounding the village had been…