In Aldeia da Venda (Alandroal) the Feast of the Holy Cross, held in May is one of the most interesting manifestations that the Alentejo keeps. Formerly, it had a greater geographical expression but today only occurs here.
Guided by ecclesiastical absence and all the complex ritual associated with it, the feast has a lost and decontextualized liturgy that has survived to this day thanks to popular devotion to the Holy Cross by these community, a devotion that may be associated with the presence of the relic of the Holy Wood that is venerated in the Church of Vera Cruz (Portel). In addition, the cross in these celebrations assumes the same shape as the eighteenth-century reliquary that houses the famous relic.
The song to the Olive Garden is sung by two groups of girls, one accompanying Madanela and the other Mordoma, who come from different places of the village, accompanied by snipers, singing in a choir and playing a tambourine in a particular way (rubbed with a finger). The two groups meet and Madanela and Mordoma exchange the objects they carry, the cross and the shroud. In the end, the whole group returns to the House of the Cross.