The carnival is another typical festival. The most typical food in those days are "filloas" (creps), "laconcon grelos" (pork with turnips' leaves) In these days people desguises and goes out for fun
Some ethnologists think that the Entroido is a pagan party related to some roman celebrations like “The Saturnalias” (Saturn). The king of the saturnalias is the head of the jokers, like the character of the Entroido who is burned after a short running along the village.
Some Galician investigators of the XXth century tried to explain some aspects
of our Entroido presenting it as reminiscences of old prechristians rites.
But the real Entroido of Galicia comes from the medieval age. Entroido appears in Europe in the medieval age and it was influenced by the Christian religion. In this feast people did things that they didn’t dare to do along the year. Entroido is celebrated forty days before the Holy Friday.
The galician word “ENTROIDO” means “INTRODUCTION” because it’s the beginning of the Easter.
The way to celebrate the Entroido depends on the history and the place where it is celebrated.
Entroido is normally held on the first days of February.
In Galicia Entroido’s celebration begins on Saturday and finish on Wednesday, but the most important day is Tuesday. On this day people wear disguises and do a parade along the roads. In some places women throw water at the people on the parade, in other places children with their disguises go to houses, so that people can give them money and sweets.
The peliqueiro’s disguise is typical of Ourense. The typical clothes of the peliqueiro are: a white shirt, a red tie, a jacket made of silk, such as the bullfighter’s; a pair of short trousers made of silk too, with woollen white plaits; white stockings; a pair of shoes, etc. In their waist they wear a sash made of silk under a leather belt, where there are five or six bells such as those as the cows’. They wear a mask made of wood, carved and painted, that hides the face of the person, and on the back of it there are some ornaments (pictures of animals, the moon or the sun, flowers, etc.). In their hands they carry a leather whip.
Carnival´s food: Pork’s meet, all kinds of sweets like “ears”(a kind of sweet made with eggs, flour, etc.), “filloas”(similar to crêpes), small ring-shaped cakes called “rosquillas”, etc.