The Black Cape Crowd of Evora

Posted October 17, 2019

Praca de Giraldo

The day we arrived in Evora, Portugal, we headed into the main square, Praca de Giraldo. We immediately noticed large groups of young people gathered in black capes. We had read that college students in Portugal wear long, black capes year round.

Even though we knew these must be Evora University students, it felt like we were in another time in history, or maybe at a costume party. We felt strangely out of place in our REI shorts and cotton t-shirts.

It turns out that J.K. Rowling, the creator of the Harry Potter series, started her writing while in Portugal. The Portuguese college students, in their long black robes, were her inspiration for the Hogwarts “uniform”.  

Chanting & Marching

We watched in fascination as the black caped students chanted, arm in arm. They formed large circles and smaller clusters throughout the square, centered mostly around the large fountain.  Their chanting was boisterous and continued to get louder and louder.

Then our attention was pulled to somewhere beyond the square. We could hear loud yells and commotion, but couldn’t be sure where it was coming from. Then a chain of students, connected like a centipede, popped into the square from a side alley. They were wearing outlandish outfits with colorful balloons and feathers stuck to their bodies, yelling, throwing their arms about, and generally calling attention to themselves.  

A Shoe On The Head?

The chanting and marching were fun to watch, but when we saw students balancing shoes on their heads all over the square, while other students took their picture, we really started to wonder.

Students were everywhere putting shoes on their heads. Some shoe-heads were posing singularly, usually kneeling down. Others were in large groups creating a pyramid, all while balancing shoes on their heads. 

We wondered if this was some sort of political protest or Greek-life shenanigans. I was dying to run around and take tons of pictures, but I was worried about intruding, so only got a few pictures from afar.

I had to solve this mystery, so I sought out some 20-something young women working at a store nearby. 

They pondered how to explain it to me in English, and finally said it was something like our fraternities and sororities, but not exactly the same. 

Mystery Solved

The store employees explained that there are no separate women & men “Greek-like” organizations in Portugal. The entire college community gather as one in the fall and “bond” by doing silly things and embarrassing the freshman.  Apparently this year the upperclassmen decided that making the freshman balance a shoe on their head would be just the indoctrination needed.

The best thing about the Portuguese “non-Greek” system is that, after the fun “getting to know you” phase in the fall, the seniors each match up with a freshman. The seniors then mentor and support their freshman match during their first college year. 

I love this idea. It reminds me of an independent school I know a bit about (I’m one of the founders), The Attic Learning Community, near Seattle, Washington, where multi-age mentoring works wonders.

I’m not at all surprised the Portuguese continue to nurture this fine tradition of older students mentoring younger ones.  Bravo.