Festa Junina Family Traditions

I have a very large Brazilian tight-knit family and we have many traditions. One of our traditions can be traced all the way back to our Portuguese descent. When the Portuguese settled in Brazil, Festa Junina was a celebration that the indigenous people would have for the beginning of the winter and harvest season. Later it grew into a celebration of three Catholic saints. Around Brazil and even here in America, there are public parties celebrating Festa Junina. Festa Junina takes place from mid-June to late August. The party consists of dressing up like a redneck cowboy, delicious food and dancing the quadrilha. When it comes to the traditional Festa Junina parties, food is the center of attention. Most of the dishes have corn such as Roasted corn, corn bread and corn tamales. Canjica, which is a thick dessert corn pudding, is also very popular. There is a huge variety of desserts from things such as pe-de-moleque which is a type of peanut brittle. Chup-chup which is a homemade popsicle that is great to beat off the heat. One of my favorite desserts is cocada; it …show more content…
This step by step dance is called the Quadrilha and is led by someone yelling out the commands. The story line is that the bride and groom lead the couples to their wedding reception by doing the dance. The bride and groom start the dance by creating a circle and having all the partners follow. The leader sets the scene and says commands like “It just started to rain” in which all the guys would put their hands above their partner’s heads. Once the leader says “The rain is gone” then everyone jumps around and starts to walk in the other direction of the circle. Some of the other commands are straight forward and easier to follow if you haven’t done it before. I have been to so many that these that if I wanted to I could join in any of the