Great food, great fun marks Great Feast of the Holy Ghost opening

FALL RIVER — From the time the sun began to set, the energy at the 32nd annual Great Feast of the Holy Ghost was palpable.

Cidalia Cunha shook her head when asked the food bliss secret of perfectly frying the malassadas.

“The secret is very secret. That’s why it’s a secret,” she smiled pulling a fat one from the vat.

Next to her, Eddie Moniz, not cooking but overseeing for the first time at the feast at the urging of a sister-in-law, said they’d average making 12,000 malassadas a day — “50,000 by the end of the feast,” he proudly declared.

“You eat a couple of those, you didn’t eat for the rest of the week,” Moniz added.

Carlos Silva, nattily dressed with his wife, Gen, had one in his mouth.

He jokingly shook his head no when asked if the wait was worth it.

“People wanted 10, a dozen. I only wanted one,” Silva said of the deal, which was $2 apiece or $18 for a dozen.

He’d suggested to the ticket taker they have separate lines for the big buyers of malassadas and another for those like him. He got nowhere at the Kennedy Park feast.

“He will wait in a long line to get one,” his wife said knowingly.

Sitting in her stroller, Paisley Ponte, 2, munched on a big hot dog, her sister, Paidtyn, 9, had French fries while their mom, Jerica Ponte, and her friend Dalila Silva were eating Portuguese sandwiches.

Both adults said they came for supper and the pulled pork cacoila. Silva had another big reason to be there: “Two of the Portuguese Kids are my cousins, she said of Brian Martin and Al Sardinah in the three-man comedy act slated to hit the main stage shortly before 10 p.m.

Another irresistible place to visit was a booth of many prizes under a large tent.

As Angelie De Oliveira, 7 years old, held her large bowl of tightly woven tiny roll-ups, she expertly explained, “There’s a number on some inside, and if you get a number you win a prize. A full bowl is $60,” she said — guaranteeing one wins a vase, a toy plane, a lobster platter, a plate from the Azores.

She looked up, pointed and smiled at the tall stuffed giraffe when asked her favorite prize, and next to it was a 32-inch TV that said it was donated by Mayor Jasiel Correia II.

Angelie’s sister, Sophie, “turning 11,” was also helping with the fundraiser, and watching customers opening dozens of the roll-ups, most of them blank. The two girls will be entering the second and fifth grades at St. Stanislaus School.

Near the main stage where the singer Nadia and her band were playing a range from jazz to ballads, children of all ages were everywhere. Young guys, tweens and teens were high-fiving as they greeted each other. An infant girl in a pink shirt and with long blondish hair delighted her parents as she tottered and wildly waived her arms, the mom used her phone to take it in.

Nadia introduced herself and her band and, after a raucous tune, said they were going to “slow it down. We would love to see you and your loved one up here on the dance floor,” she said.

As the lights began to glow on the nearly 20-foot tall Queen Isabella’s crown, made of fiberglass and hand-painted gold, the wife of feast President Joao Medeiros was outside the power of the holy spirit booth adorned inside with white lilies and roses.

When people come to where it says “glory to the divine,” they see the crown behind them, often put a donation on a plate and kiss the silver scepter with a prayer.

Ana Medeiros, the president’s wife, handed a woman a bright red “lembranca” — remembrance — ribbon with a gold crown and lettering of this grand event in “Fall River, MA, USA.”

“I’m sorry about your dad,” Medeiros told a woman she hugged and gave the ribbon.

Medeiros’ husband could not be at the feast when the Queen Isabella crown was lit, surrounding by the names in wood of the nine Azorean Islands.

Joao Medeiros, the first-year feast president, was at Logan Airport in Boston picking up an important guest, she said: Jose C. Bolieiro, president of the Ponta Delgada Municipality in Sao Miguel.

Joe Silva, this year’s feast vice president who was president a few years ago, walked toward the lit crown, describing the multi-day feast he relished. “Today is dedicated to the young people, the new generation,” Silva said as the music of Nadia and her band resounded through Kennedy Park.

He said this younger generation needed to know their Portuguese heritage, as he named the cuisine people of all ages were standing in line to buy, and their traditions that will include Friday night the bishops of Portugal and the Fall River Diocese blessing the food distribution of “pensoes” for the needy.

He said 15 buses from Canada will bring participants this year. He said they expected 300,000 people by the time it was over Sunday night.

Maria and Manuel Pestana of South Attleboro, entering the park, said they come every year except when they are traveling to Portugal and the islands. An older couple, she came to America at age 29 from Sao Miguel, he came at 39 from Madeira.

“It’s the Portuguese tradition,” Maria said. She comes weekly to the Portugalia Marketplace in Fall River.

When they come to the Great Feast of the Holy Ghost, it’s to meet people — and “for the malassadas,” she said.

Email Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com or call him at 508-676-2573.