June
and July are festive months in Brazil. Throughout the country, festivals are
made to celebrate saints and new plantation seasons, following a tradition that
started in Europe even before Brazil was discovered.
Background
Festas Juninas, or June
Festivals, are Catholic traditions that were brought to Brazil in the 16th
century, when the country was a colony of Portugal. These festivals were made to celebrate
the days of four saints: Saint Anthony, on June 13; Saint John, on June
24; Saint Peter and Saint Paul, on June 29. Festas Juninas were called joaninas due
to the name of the only saint celebrated, originally: São João (Saint
John).
More
than that, the festivals happened to celebrate the rituals of the people who
already lived in the continent before the colonizers arrived. The celebrations
were made for the preparation of the new plantations and harvests. Many places
in Brazil face drought from June to September, so this period is used to clear
the grounds, fertilize them, and then start planting in them.
The Festivals
Food and Drinks
June
Festivals are known to be composed of quermesses,
which are bazaars where people go, dressed with checkered clothes, play games
to win small prizes, as well as eat different types of food and drinks, such as special dishes
made with corn (canjica), and a drink made of wine, sugar, ginger, and spices,
like clove and cinnamon (quentão). There are many other food options
that people can eat, such as pamonha, pinhão, pé-de-moleque, paçoca. These are
usual items of everyday life that can be found at any grocery store, but it is
in June and July, at the festivals, that they are more common.
Games
Festivals
offer diverse types of games to the public. One of the most common is correio elegante, or elegant
mail, in which a person sends, anonymously, a card to another person. There are
also the “jails”, or cadeias,
where people get “arrested” by other
people, being obliged to stay “behind the bars” for a determined amount of
time, usually 5 or 10 minutes, or to pay a “bail” to be set free. Jails can be
easily made in an isolated place surrounded by chairs.
Bingos can also be held at the festivals - and, do not worry, these are allowed by law.Fishery with fake plastic fish is another common game, in which people
get small gifts according to the number that is written under the fish - which
cannot be seen until the fish is caught.
Dances
The festivals also have
the traditional dances,
known as quadrilhas, in which people pair up and dress like farm men and women -
men wear suspenders and farmer straw hats and women wear dresses, with
ponytails and painted gap teeth. This dance originates from Holland and was
introduced in Brazil during the Empire. There is usually
an announcer, calling out the dance steps to typical songs of festas juninas.
Quadrilhas may have a fake wedding, made by people
dressing up as bride, groom, and the priest.Most of these parties happen in
churches, schools, clubs, institutes, and even museums, which are places that
can receive a considerable amount of people. These sites are usually decorated
with small coloured flags, which may be made of a single type of cloth or
patchworks.