THORNTON, CA (MPG) - In a showcase of Portuguese heritage and religious devotion, Our Lady of Fatima Society of Thornton held its annual celebration in honor of its namesake. Observances and festivities lasted for more than a week, with one of the highlights being a parade on Saturday, Oct. 19.

Parade-watchers crowded the streets in Thornton on Saturday for the “Bodo de Leite,” a parade celebrating Portuguese culture, particularly the Azores islands, where many residents of Portuguese descent can trace their lineage. The historical origin of the parade is a charitable distribution of milk (leite) and bread but it also featured Portuguese folk dancers, participants in vibrant traditional dress and demonstrations of rural life. The Festa queens waved to paradegoers from floats.

Men led teams of oxen, each drawing a wooden cart; some carts were decorated with flowers or loaded with milk cans.

Toward the procession’s end, six men walked shoulder to shoulder as they sang cantoria, a form of improvised singing. They took turns singing rhyming quatrains in Portuguese, made up on the spot.

“They tell a story as they’re singing but they do it as they go along. They make up these songs as they go along,” Festa Secretary Laura Pereira told the Herald. “It’s very popular in the Azores.”

Other activities during the week of the Festa include the presentation of the queens, Portuguese-style bullfights and multiple musical and dance performances.

At its root, the Festa is a religious event and Mass is celebrated on each day.

“Our Lady of Fatima, who is actually the Virgin Mary … she appeared to three children in Portugal beginning on May 13 (1917), every month on the 13th until Oct. 13,” Pereira said. “And when she appeared to them, she gave them three secrets, and then she also asked them to pray the rosary for world peace.”

Pereira said there were miracles attributed to Our Lady of Fatima, and residents attend the Thornton festival because “to them, it’s almost like being in Fatima, Portugal.”

And the Festa attracts more than just Portuguese people; Pereira said the Hispanic and Filipino communities also turn out.

“(There are) so many different cultures that come to our Festa, and they have so much faith that they want to come and they want to see her. I don’t even know how to explain it. It’s just the faith that they have in her,” Pereira continued.

The religious aspect has the most personal importance for Pereira, who has been involved in the celebration with her family for years. She, both her daughters and her granddaughter have been Festa queens.

“So we’re very, very involved in it,” Pereira said. “I like the whole thing. I like the religious part, the social part, everything. It’s just part of my life.”