Vale de Salgueiro: the Portuguese village with a strange tradition of smoking children
Smoking is an incredibly difficult habit to put down once it’s been picked up, making matters very complicated for the children of Portuguese village Vale de Salgueiro, who find themselves encouraged to light up and take a puff on one day of the year when a local festival rolls around.
January 5th is the date marked in the calendar for kids choking for their next cigarette but thwarted by the fact they’re often at least a decade too young to buy them legally, with the annual celebration of Epiphany used to celebrate the three wise men who went and gifted young Jesus his very first birthday presents.
Locals have defended the unusual practice, offering that it’s a tradition passed down by centuries with deep ties to Christianity and the winter solstice, even if nobody seems entirely sure why it’s evolved into parents buying packets of cigarettes for their offspring and then encouraging them to fire one up, take a deep drag, and exhale in the name of the lord.
There’s more to it than that, obviously, but images of tiny little folks smoking in the streets were always going to be the ones that gained the most external attention. Epiphany kicks off on a Friday and ends with a Saturday mass, with various festivities between those two points, including bonfires, dancing, bagpipe music, and a local elected the designated ‘king’ for the year who dishes out booze and snacks.
Even though the legal age for purchasing and ingesting tobacco products in Portugal is 18, the authorities are fully aware of what goes down each year in Vale de Salgueiro, but they let it slide based on the fact it’s a local custom that’s been in place for hundreds of years, and it’s a one-time thing.
On the other hand, resident Rui Sergio admitted that when he was growing up, “we were impatient for January 5th to arrive so we could smoke our cigarette,” so it’s not unreasonable to suggest Vale de Salgueiro may have a slightly higher percentage of local smokers, seeing as they’ve been raised on doing it since they were nippers.
Then again, coffee shop owner Guilhermina Mateus couldn’t think of a reason other than “tradition” to hand over a ciggie to her young daughter, but she wasn’t concerned it would be the beginning of a lifelong addiction that can often be nightmarish to kick.
“I cannot explain why; I see no harm in that because they do not really smoke; they inhale and expire immediately, of course,” came the explanation, making a point of clarifying that it doesn’t really count as smoking unless it’s inhaled. “And it’s only during these days, today and tomorrow; after that, they never ask for cigarettes again.”
Not for another 364 days, anyway, until the little ‘uns mark it down on their calendars that the moment they’ve all been waiting for is upon them once again, with the arrival of Epiphany bringing with it the promise of their next annual cigarette.
