Colmeias in Festival

Colmeias em Festa is held annually in the União das freguesias de Colmeias e Memória, in the municipality of Leiria, throughout the month of September. It is a traditional festivity that brings together the community's religious devotion with moments of music and fellowship, keeping alive a practice that, according to historical sources, dates back to 1740, when the local Pilgrimage Festival first began to be celebrated. The festival is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to Saint Michael the Archangel, patron saints venerated by the local population. The celebrations include religious ceremonies, processions and rituals that bring the community together, continuing a tradition of pilgrimage festivals deeply rooted in this region. Over time, the parish itself underwent administrative changes: Colmeias was established as an autonomous parish in 1985 and, later, in 2013, it merged into the current União das freguesias de Colmeias e Memória. The festival has endured as an expression of the faith and identity of this land.

Colmeias and Memória are two kindred villages in the heart of the Leiria region, each with its own character, its own places and its own people. Here, history is made of modest toil and ancient faith, with the Parish Church of Saint Michael presiding over life in Colmeias and the Igreja Velha, dedicated to Our Lady of Piety, keeping the silence and the memory of the centuries. These are people who have not forgotten their roots, who blend the devotion inherited from their ancestors with the joy of open-air gatherings. And there is always the generous table, with beef stew, roast suckling pig, rice black pudding and golden filhós that taste of celebration. It is worth stopping, looking and lingering — because it is in this unhurried way that these lands allow themselves to be known.