Every year on the occasion of Easter, Constância receives a grandiose religious-cultural event, the Festas do Concelho / Festa de Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem

The devotion to Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem in Constância is associated with the intense river traffic of goods that has been carried out for centuries between the port of this town and the capital.

From the dangers of navigation was born the seafarers’ attachment to the Mother of God and trust in her protective intervention. The Feast and Blessing of the Boats, on Easter Monday, are the culminating moments of a devotion that has lasted for at least two centuries.

Until the middle of the 20th century, despite some vicissitudes in life and in the world, the Festival maintained its usual grandeur, reflecting the economic prosperity of the village that came from its relationship with the rivers, from which it drew its sustenance and the sense of its existence.

After the time of seafarers and river transport, the Festival went into decline, as did the activities that generated and maintained it, and it only did not disappear because the Parish decided to take over its organization, replacing the party planners who no longer existed, and because they were very deep the roots that devotion had created in the local culture.

Over the last 20 years, the Festival has gone through a new phase in its history, which began when the City Council decided to intervene in it with the aim of revitalizing and revaluing it, associating it with a wide range of cultural, recreational and leisure activities that make up the Festas. of the Council of Constance.

Source: http://www.cm-constancia.pt/index.php/pt/visitar/festas-e-romarias/festa-de-nossa-senhora-da-boa-viagem