Pescadero to Celebrate Chamarita Sunday, Monday

The I.D.E.S. Society of Pescadero will begin their two-day celebration of Chamarita (also known as the Holy Ghost Festival) Sunday at 10 a.m. with a solemn parade featuring the Big and Little queens, their courts, and music. A free barbeque follows.

Chamarita is a Portuguese tradition celebrated each year to commemorate the Pentecost Sunday that took place hundreds of years ago when people of the Azores Islands sighted a ship bringing food and goods coming into the port -- after locals had prayed to the Holy Ghost for just that. Carrying her crown, Queen Isabel held a procession through the streets of Lisbon down to a church and left her crown there as an offering to the Holy Ghost as thanks. In a Chamarita parade, the queen emulates Queen Isabel's journey by transporting a crown under her care to church.

Named after a traditional Portuguese folk dance, the celebration in Pescadero runs two days, while the one in Half Moon Bay (starting on Friday, June 10) will last for four days. According to the late June Morrall in her blog Half Moon Bay Memories, there's been two separate celebrations since 1900, when ongoing fights between the two I.D.E.S. chapters led to a split.

According to the Half Moon Bay I.D.E.S. Society, the first time Chamarita was celebrated in Half Moon Bay was in 1871 at Frenchman's Creek.

This morning's parade begins at Stage Road and will proceed to the Catholic Church on North Street.

Pescadero's celebration will conclude tomorrow with an auction.                                                                                                                                                                                                            Parade attendees are encouraged by the Society to arrive between 9 - 9:30 a.m. at the I.D.E.S. Chapel on Stage Road. The I.D.E.S. Hall is at 30 Stage Road in Pescadero.