SANTOS OFÍCIOS A R T E S

The history of the Love Handkerchiefs began in the 17th century. They were embroidered with geometric motifs by the aristocratic ladies using only two different colours: red and black.

Later on girls from other not so educated social classes, began to make them too, but in an easier way: the motifs and the technique of the embroidery were not so difficult, the colours were all there instead of only red and black and there was always a love poem not correctly written, whose mistakes were related to the spoken language of the North of Portugal.

The Love Handkerchief was offered by the girl who embroidered it to the boy she loved. If he accepted it that meant they were engaged from then on. He should always wear it around his neck or on his jacket during balls or feasts, so that the other girls knew he was no longer free. If the engagement was broken, which sometimes happened, then the Love Handkerchief had to return to the girl who had made it.

Rosa Lopes (born in 1969 in Vila Verde, the homeland of the Love Handkerchiefs), is the woman who nowadays continues this folk tradition making new copies of the old ones. The quality of her work is so high that she was chosen to make a special one to be offered to Pope John Paul II when he visited Fátima in 1991. That is also the reason why only Love Handkerchiefs embroidered by her can be found in Santos Ofícios, the only shop in Lisbon where her work is available.