The Christian festival of Epiphany is a day that commemorates the reveal of God as Jesus Christ, and different cultures and countries have their own ways of celebrating it.
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Vale do Salgueiro stands out because, according to news.sky.com, their celebrations encourage kids as young as five years old to smoke cigarettes. This tradition is quite uncommon—you can say that again—and no one really knows where it comes from, or what the smoking means. Did Jesus encourage kids to smoke? Were the rules less strict way back then?
“Only those who live and are raised here can truly understand the meaning of this tradition.”
Mmkay.
According to the village parish president, Carlos Cadavez, kids smoke 2 or 3 packs on this day. Understandably, books have been written about this village and about their culture, and although no one has been able to explain why this happens, most claim that these traditions haven’t stopped because the village is located very far from Lisbon and from other large crowds.
Grown ups from the village claim that they’re not concerned with kids smoking during the event because they don’t truly inhale the smoke. A woman also claimed that these kids only smoke for one day, and that they never ask for cigarettes again, so there’s no problem. You might be wrong there, but whatever.
