Brazil is a culturally diverse country, our festivities are so much more than Carnival. Festa Junina plays an important role in our country as well.

Background

Festa Junina (June Festival) is a Catholic tradition that takes place in June (and sometimes July as well) to celebrate saints and new plantation seasons. This tradition was brought to Brazil through Portuguese settlers. At the beginning, the celebrations were pretty similar to the Portuguese ones but over the years Brazil developed a unique type of celebration with regional expressions and idiosyncrasies.
This festivity usually takes place at a grand tent made of raw material that was once commonly used for special festivities in old rural areas. Men and women dress up as farm rural people, with large straw hats, fake freckles, painted gap teeth and women wear pigtails. This is a tribute to the origins of Brazilian country music.

The festivity

The cool winter calls for bonfires, traditional dances, rich food and our traditional quentão, which is boiled red wine with cinnamon, clove, ginger, sugar, orange and cachaça.  Corn, pop-corn, canjica (a sweet dish made of corn, coconut milk, condensed milk and coconut sprinkles), pamonha (also made of corn), pine nuts are some of the typical festa junina’s food. All the things served during the festivity (except for the pine nut) are usual itens of the grocery store, but suring the June festivals, they are more common.

Festa Junina offers different games and attractions for its public. One of the most popular is correio elegante (elegant mail), in which people can send, anonymously, cards to another people. the “Jails” are also a big attraction, in which people “get arrested” by other people and need to stay arrested for 5 or 10 minutes, unless they pay a “bail” to get out. Fishery is really common during the festa junina, in this case, people use fake plastic fishes and fake plastic fish stick to win prizes. Bingo can also be part of the event -this bingo is allowed by law- and the prizes are usually house itens.

Dances are an important part of the Festa Junina. The quadrilha (quadrille, a dance that was fashionable in late 18th century Europe and its colonies) is a vital component of the party. It can involve up to 30 people dressed in colorful vestments, while a chosen “bride and groom” act as the center of the spectacle.

 
Check out some photos of Festas Juninas around Brazil: