– Lisbon (Lusa)
Without cold and without fears, today some people have fulfilled the tradition of diving into the sea at Carcavelos beach, Cascais, to celebrate a new year and with the wish that the covid-19 “will disappear for good. “.
This year, there were more people on the beach than in the water, to celebrate the first day of the year, but the irreducible adherents of this tradition entered fearlessly, between screams, arms in the air and splashing in the small waves.
Filomena, 63, residing in Oeiras, was overflowing with happiness, lying on the sand, by the sea, like a child. “It’s very good fun,” he told the Lusa agency.
The bather explained that she has been performing this ritual for 14 years and that it is rare to catch a cold.
“This is to kill ‘the covid’, to see if he goes away with the cold. There is no covid to beat us,” he said.
For 2021, Filomena called for “a lot of peace and a lot of health and for the pandemic to go away quickly. And for people to have a minimum of attention and care to take precautions”.
On the beach, and already with a towel by his shoulders, Joaquim Tomás, 74, from Lisbon, told the Lusa agency that he is a regular beach goer in winter, two to three times a week, for health reasons, after having done several operations to the heart.
“The tension has dropped and I feel healthier,” he said.
For Joaquim Tomás, this routine doesn’t have much meaning, even on the first day of the year.
“For me, everything is going well, I have nothing to regret. I still wish the pandemic to pass and the country to return to what it used to be, a country for tourists – I worked in tourism. We need tourists, although people sometimes complain, “he said.
For Mariana and her daughter, four-year-old Sofia, this was a first in the sea dives at the beginning of a new year.
Emigrated to Switzerland more than thirty years ago, she is in Portugal to visit her parents and took advantage of a bath on the beach, where the water temperature was around 15 degrees and the atmospheric temperature this morning was nine degrees. “It’s a great time!” He exclaimed.
“We heard about this tradition, which gives luck, to bathe on January 1st, and we came here to ask for a lot of health for everyone. Health and for the ‘covid’ to go away. once in freedom, we can hug, give a kiss “, he told the Lusa agency.
In addition to bathers, on Carcavelos beach, during the morning it was possible to see families, people walking dogs, others running along the beach, many curious people taking pictures, surfers, a small group playing volleyball; all this under the discreet eye of the authorities, on land and at sea.
Rui Inocêncio, 55 years old, finished and left the sea, told the Lusa agency that he has been doing this ritual for 15 years.
For the year that is now beginning, with a cloudy sky in Carcavelos and a timid rainbow rising between gray clouds, this bather was succinct: “May the pandemic pass, so that we are all well”.
