Porto celebrates the summer and its patron saint with plastic hammers, sardines and leeks
PORTO, Portugal — On Porto's steep streets, several thousands of people celebrated the summer in the way the city has been doing it for decades and centuries: by bonking friends and strangers alike with toy hammers and reveling in the streets all night.
A Christian holiday with pagan roots, the festival of St. John the Baptist — Porto's patron saint — is celebrated with fireworks, balloons and lots of grilled sardines. An older St. John's Eve ritual in Portugal's second-biggest city involved buying leek flowers believed to bring good fortune and inviting strangers to sniff the pungent plant.
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