Jardim do Mar decorated for Christmas

Jardim do Mar square is beautifully decorated with lights for Christmas 2011 and the coming New Year. Christmas and the New Year's Eve are really intensely lived in Madeira.

Funchal "dressed up" with thousands of lights

Christmas time. For this magic time of the year the streets of Funchal get beautifully ‘dressed up’ with thousands of lights in numerous colours. The magnificent Christmas decoration all over Funchal together with the fantastic New Year’s Eve fireworks and activities make Madeira Island one of the most attractive ‘reveillons’ destinations, to which already so many people return every year to experience this special ambience over and over again.

Fado part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

Amália is one of the most famous Fado singers: Gaivota

Fado, the famous urban folk popular song of Portugal was recently inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. It happened on the 27th of November, 2011.

Fado is a performance genre incorporating music and poetry widely practised by various communities in Lisbon.

It is usually performed by a solo singer, male or female, traditionally accompanied by a wire-strung acoustic guitar and the Portuguese guitarra – a pear-shaped cittern with twelve wire strings, unique to Portugal, which also has an extensive solo repertoire. The past few decades have witnessed this instrumental accompaniment expanded to two Portuguese guitars, a guitar and a bass guitar.

The dissemination of Fado through emigration and the world music circuit has reinforced its image as a symbol of Portuguese identity, leading to a process of cross-cultural exchange involving other musical traditions.

HISTORY OF FADO
(For English version click on "en" on the top right side of the website)
MORE HISTORY OF FADO part I
MORE HISTORY OF FADO part II
THE PORTUGUESE GUITAR