Festa dos Tabuleiros

Tomar’s flower festival, held every four years, with parades of decorated trays and thousands of paper flowers.

Every four years, the streets of Tomar fill with flowers for the Festa dos Tabuleiros, one of the most beautiful popular festivals of Portugal. Hundreds of girls carry the tabuleiros on their heads — tall trays crowned with bread and flowers — and the whole city, from the castle to the river, is dressed in paper flowers.

History and traditions

The festival grew from the old celebrations of the Holy Spirit, celebrated in Tomar since the Middle Ages, in which the community shared the harvest and the offerings of the season. The tabuleiros — decorated with thirty loaves and crowns of paper flowers — are carried by the girls of the town in the great parade, and the tradition has passed whole from generation to generation.

O que esperar

The great parade of the tabuleiros, through the streets of the town.
The decoration of the city in paper flowers and greenery.
The traditions and the bodo shared with the community.
The setting of the festival — the old town, the castle and the river Nabão.

Visiting

The Festa dos Tabuleiros is held every four years, in June or July, in the centre of Tomar. The most recent edition was in 2023, and the next follows on the four-year cycle; confirm the exact dates of the next edition with the municipality before planning your visit.