The Portuguese-American Club will host the Feast of the Holy Ghost this weekend.

The annual tradition begins at 5 p.m. on Saturday, July 178at the PA Club with traditional Portuguese food, music from the Jelly Roll Horns and games for kids.

On Sunday, July 18 the parade sets off from the Steamship Terminal at 11:30 a.m. and travels through town, ending at the PA Club for free soup and the blessing of Queen Isabel’s crown.

Pamela Gibson Silva, the current president of the PA club, said she has been coming to the feast since she was a kid.

“I can remember as a little girl seeing the line for sopa on Sunday all the way across the parking lot,” Ms. Silva said.

Azorean immigrants began the tradition on the Vineyard in 1928 to stay connected to their homeland. The celebration highlights the generosity of Queen Isabel of Portugal, who vowed to sell her crown and jewels if the Holy Spirit helped her people during a period of famine.

Gina DeBettencourt, the previous president of the PA club and a current board member, said some families have been part of the tradition for generations.

“There are some kids that have been doing it since they were two years old...and now they’re helping run the games, they’re helping make soup, or they’re doing the fried dough stand,” she said.

Ms. DeBettencourt is part of this year’s feast planning committee alongside Ms. Silva and PA club vice president Bertha Blake. The women said the mood this year is also a heavy one due to the death in January of former PA club president Patricia Bergeron.

Mr. Bergeron died in a boating accident with her partner Roy Scheffer on New Year’s Day.

“That’s the hardest one right there. She and Roy aren’t going to be at the raw bar, and her presence won’t be here. It hasn’t been here all week,” Ms. DeBettencourt said.

The committee said preparations for the weekend have been challenging without her.

“It will be a lot tougher because Tricia is the PA club... When she came here during the feast week, she took charge,” Ms. Silva said.

“Whether she was in charge or not,” Ms. DeBettencourt added as the women laughed.

Every year after the parade, participants leave a wreath at the base of the statue at the Catholic Cemetery to honor Queen Isabel. After Ms. Bergeron’s son died at a young age in 2001, the group started a new tradition of leaving a wreath at his gravestone too. This year they will also leave a wreath at Ms. Bergeron’s grave.

A scholarship fund has been started in honor of Ms. Bergeron’s legacy. In addition to being a longtime president of the PA Club she was a unit coordinator in the emergency room at the hospital.

For more information, visit paclubmv.org.