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Rooted in a 700-year-old legend of famine and faith, the annual Festa do Espírito Santo will be celebrated by Hollister’s Portuguese community with a dance, parade and other activities starting on June 7.
The dance will kick off the festival, followed by a downtown procession on June 8 led by Sociedade do Divino Espírito Santo (SDES) Lodge members and Festa Queens from around the state.
After a pause at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, the event concludes at the SDES Hall, located at 7th and College Streets, with an all-day feast of traditional Portuguese food, as well as music, dancing and an auction of donated items.
“It takes me back to my youth,” current lodge president Al Gomes said. “Events like this keep people together. It’s about faith. It’s about family. It’s about pride. You’ll see every generation working together here.”
The festa, or Feast of the Holy Spirit, celebrates an act of generosity by Queen Isabella of Portugal about 700 years ago. Gomes said that, at a time of famine caused by a massive earthquake, the queen secreted loaves of bread from the palace to feed the poor.
Once, when embarking on her errand of mercy, she was confronted by her angry husband, King Diniz, who demanded to see what she was hiding under her cloak. When she opened it, the loaves of bread had been transformed into white roses.
“She had great faith in the Holy Spirit,” Gomes said. “She promised that if a miracle were sent to help the people, she would sell her crown and her jewels. Some ships appeared in the harbor with food for the people, and she kept her promise.”
Traditionally, during the festa, a communal feast of sopas—a soup made from beef braised in stock and served over bread—is prepared for all comers. While it has been celebrated in Portugal for more than 300 years, the event was first held in 1886 by immigrants in Sausalito.
The previous year’s parade. Photo courtesy of Lubelia Silveira. 
The previous year’s parade. Photo courtesy of Lubelia Silveira. 
The queens at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Photo courtesy of Lubelia Silveira. 
The previous year’s parade. Photo courtesy of Lubelia Silveira. 
The previous year’s parade. Photo courtesy of Lubelia Silveira. 
1906 Queen Isabell de Rosa. Courtesy of Manuel Santos. 
Sopas. Photo courtesy of Lubelia Silveira. 
Serving Sopas. Photo courtesy of Lubelia Silveira. 
Sopas. Photo courtesy of Lubelia Silveira. 
Al Gomes with the cooking pots. Photo by Robert Eliason. 
Manuel Santos with a copy of “The Holy Ghost Festas: A Historic Perspective of the Portuguese in California.” Photo by Robert Eliason.
While nobody knows the exact date the traditional event was first held in Hollister, local historian Manuel Santos, who wrote a chapter on the Hollister lodge for “The Holy Ghost Festas: A Historic Perspective of the Portuguese in California,” said that a Portuguese organization, the União Portuguesa do Estado da Califórnia, was chartered in 1883 and celebrations may have been held as early as 1899.
“It’s part of our culture,” he said. “And it’s part of our religion. The Portuguese really found an attachment to the Holy Spirit as a protector. There’s probably a hundred organizations just like this in California celebrating this event on different Sundays.”
Preparations for the feast start with picking up the beef for the sopas on the Thursday before the festa. This year, local cattlemen donated three cows; a fourth cow was purchased by the lodge. The meat is braised in four huge cauldrons in the hall’s basement, making enough to feed about 1,000 people.
However, the lodge’s queens, symbolizing Isabella, begin a year in advance, designing and sewing long ceremonial capes that they will wear in the procession from the hall to the church.
This year, there are two queens, 15-year-old Sophia Luiz, the rainha grande or “big queen,” and her sister, Liliana Luiz, the pequena rainha, or “little queen.” Sophia leads the parade, accompanied by her two “aias” (“side maids”), sisters Angelina and Arianna Silva.
“The cape is made by a specialist,” Sophia said. “They’re pretty heavy. We pick the color and the things we want on it, such as flowers or lace. Most capes have either a crown or doves, as well. You pick your side maids and that’s about it.”
Sophia has already taken part in the parade, serving as little queen when she was seven years old. She was selected as big queen this year, in part because her sister was old enough to take part as little queen.
The primary responsibility of the queen is to represent Hollister in various parades around the state, with dates coordinated so that queens from other lodges can also join each other’s parades.
“We get a lot of waves from the crowd during the parade,” she said. “A lot of little girls think we look like princesses, so they want to take our pictures. And it is fun to represent your culture and where you are from.”
The outgoing big queen, Alyssa Silveira, said she attended about 30 parades last year, traveling as far as Idaho to represent the Hollister lodge.
“It was almost every weekend during the summer,” she said. “It’s a really fun thing to watch, and everyone is always really welcoming. It’s amazing that this tradition goes back so far in the culture. It helps future generations continue our culture.”
There are two seatings for the celebratory sharing of sopas, one at noon, when the procession returns to the hall, and one at 6 p.m. All the remaining food is given away to anyone who wants it.
“It takes a lot of dedicated, hardworking people to keep these old traditions alive,” Gomes said. “For the upcoming generations, there’s less and less interest. But I believe there would be fewer problems in the world if more people were involved in things like this.”
Festival schedule:
June 2-6
7 p.m. Praying of the Rosary
Saturday, June 7
8 p.m. to midnight: Dance at SDES Hall with Sem Dúvida
9:30 p.m. Presentation of 2025 Queens, Side Maids and Officers
Sunday, June 8
10 a.m. Formation of the parade from SDES Hall to Sacred Heart Church
11 a.m. Mass celebrated by Rev. Father Rudy Ruiz at Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Noon: Procession from the Church to the hall accompanied by the Nova Alianca Marching Band and various Portuguese organizations
Noon: Sopas served to all present
12:15 p.m. Concert by Nova Alianca
1 p.m. Auction of donated gifts
5 to 9 p.m. Dance in the hall with music by Gilberto Amaral
6 p.m. Sopas served to all present
The parade will start at the SDES Hall (7th and College), continue up 7th Street to San Benito Street, turning left on San Benito Street for two blocks to 5th Street, turning left on 5th Street to Sacred Heart Church (5th and College). After mass, participants will return to the Hall by way of College Street.
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