After December closes the harvest cycle and celebrates the new olive oil at the table, January arrives in the olive grove bringing the deep cold of the Transmontano winter. The olive grove breathes slowly, enveloped in the silence of dormancy, while in the villages the ancestral traditions of the winter cycle keep alive the connection between land, memory and community. This is the month of necessary rest — but also of the invisible work that takes place inside each olive tr

The bonfires and the young men are the two pillars of the most authentic Christmas in Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro. This is not folklore — they are living manifestations of an ancestral memory, where fire purifies, the mask liberates, and the community is renewed.