Earlier this week in Fall River, MA., four people were killed by a fire that engulfed a hall where members of the Portugese community were preparing for a feast. Today, Michael Paulson of the Globe looks at the traditions of these feasts:

This weekend’s Holy Ghost Festival in Fall River — the celebration of which is now uncertain because of the tragedy — is one of hundreds of such festivals that take place each spring and summer throughout the Azorean diaspora, in New England, California, Brazil, and beyond.

The festivals are a unique expression of devotion to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Christian Trinity, that is closely associated with the intense religiosity of the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago in the northern Atlantic. As residents of the Azores immigrated to the Americas, they brought the festival with them.

“It’s simply the most important tradition in the Azores," said Manuela Bairos, Portugal’s consul general in Boston.

The festivals vary in timing and detail from location to location, but share several elements, including a procession, often led by children dressed as saints; a free meal, usually consisting of a soup with bread, some form of cabbage, and meat; and a silver crown or crowns, usually adorned with a dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit.

The celebrations have a strongly Catholic character. The procession takes place on a Sunday after Pentecost and is preceded by a Mass. Often, as in Fall River, people get together evenings before the feast to recite the rosary.

“The Portuguese people, especially from the Azores, have a great devotion to the Holy Spirit, and that has permeated their culture," said the Rev. James Ferry, pastor of Espirito Santo parish, where a majority of the Holy Ghost Association worships.