Latada 2024: not even the rain halted tradition!
Thousands of students from the University of Coimbra paraded through the city streets.
Thousands of University of Coimbra students filled the city on a rainy day for the traditional 'Latada' parade, the last day of 'Freshers' Week and Insignia Imposition', which took place from 2 to 6 October.
Actually, we don't usually say 'Festa das Latas e Imposição de Insígnias'. It's too long a sentence. We just call it 'Latada'. A unique name for a long-standing tradition at the oldest university in Portugal - and one of the oldest in Europe. A unique name for a long-standing tradition at the oldest university in Portugal - and one of the oldest in Europe.
'Lata' is the Portuguese word for can, so why is this student festival called "Latada" or "Festa das Latas"? There's a simple answer: it translates as "Cans Festival" or "Cans Party"! The Latada Parade celebrates the new students of the University of Coimbra, and on this special day, all the new students dress up in creative costumes, wearing the colours of their faculties and cans tied around their ankles. Now imagine the noise of thousands of young people parading through the streets of Coimbra to the rattling sound of cans. And every fresher carrying... a chamber pot.
But this celebration is definitely not just about the new students. The final day of the 2024 Festa das Latas began in the school courtyard with the Insignia Imposition Ceremony. For the students about to graduate, it was time to attach the "grelo" (a thin ribbon in the school's colour) to their black leather folder ("pasta académica").
'It's a very iconic moment for us,' says Beatriz Bento, a student at the UC Faculty of Pharmacy. 'It marks the end of a chapter, bringing back all the good memories from the past three years.'
The insignia 'are the symbols of a student's merit', explains the Dux Veteranorum of the UC, Matias Correia. This ceremony, in which the students 'publicly show the city who the next finalists of Coimbra are', marks 'the beginning of the road to 'Queima das Fitas' (Burning of the Ribbons). Despite the rain, 'there are more people here than we expected', adds Matias.
During the Latada parade, in addition to their brand new Insignia, students carry a turnip in their black leather folder, a tradition that dates back to 1903. In March of that year, in what became known as the "turnip revolt", women vendors in the Dom Pedro V marketplace protested against taxes, and the UC students joined them. Since then, "every year they buy turnips from the women of the Dom Pedro V market to show their loyalty to the cause".
Hundreds of students were already gathering outside the Porta Férrea (Iron Gate) for the start of the Latada parade, despite the heavy rain.
Political satire and slogans are typical of student parades in Coimbra, and this one was no different. The General Directorate of the Associação Académica de Coimbra (DG/AAC) opened the parade with a "satire of a student carrying the burden of the cost of higher education" to raise awareness of the high drop-out rate.
The rain had already begun to 'bless' the students along the route, but it wasn't until the end of the parade that they were baptised by their 'godparents'—older students—on the banks of the River Mondego, using water collected from their chamber pots. This traditional ceremony is meant to bring good luck to the new students as they embark on their journey at the University of Coimbra.
See you all in May, for the Burning of the Ribbons! (Queima das Fitas)
