Lucky at cards...

Last Sunday I went to a Brazilian party organized by the Kansai Brazilian Community. Well, it's called "Festa Junina", and it's sort of traditional... and it has a "countryside" image within it.

That's a celebration that I can't really explain, so I'll get some help from Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia article about "Festa Junina":

Festa Junina, typically termed São João (Saint John) as it is centered on that saint's day, is the name of annual Brazilian celebrations (historically related to the Midsummer and Saint John festivities in Europe) which take place in the beginning of the Brazilian winter (...). These Europe-originated festivities are most associated with Northeastern Brazil, but today celebrated in the whole country. It's mainly celebrated on the following days of the Catholic feast of Saint Anthony, John the Baptist and Saint Peter.

(...) They also celebrate rural life and feature typical clothing, food, dance (particularly quadrilha, which is similar to square dancing). Like Midsummer and Saint John's Day in Portugal and Scandinavian countries, São João celebrates marital union. The "quadrilha" features couple formations around a mock wedding whose bride and groom are the central attraction of the dancing.

Usually taking place in an arraial, a large, open space outdoors, men dress up as farm boys with suspenders and large straw hats and women wear pigtails, freckles, painted gap teeth and red-checkered dresses, all in a loving tribute to the origins of Brazilian country music, and of themselves, some of whom are recent immigrants from the countryside to cities such as Olinda, Recife, Maceió and Salvador, and some of whom return to the rural areas during that season to visit family. However, nowadays, São João festivities are extremely popular in all urban areas and among all social classes. In the Northeast, they are as popular as Carnival. It should be noted that, like during Carnival, these festivities involve costume-wearing (in this case, peasant costumes), dancing, drinking, and visual spectacles (fireworks display and folk dancing). Like the original European Midsummer celebrations, during the two-week June festivities in Brazil, bonfires are lit. They can be seen everywhere in northeastern cities.

I am just not sure about the "extremely popular in all urban areas and among all social classes" part, but I have to admit that most people have participated in one of those at least once.

Back to the subject, although the day was rainy, I went to Kobe for that party (Yeah... still Kobe...). Among other things, meeting old friends (again), making new friends and enjoying the food (espetinho!! Guaraná!! Pastel!! Too bad the carrot cake was over before I arrived... Sorry for not showing pictures, but I couldn't upload them all, and I can't find good sites to link to. Just google the words and you may find what kind of dishes I'm talking about...).

Ah, and some notes. The musicians playing forró were Japanese... But they were playing better than many Brazilians I know (LOL), and their accent when singing was barely noticeable... Or better, it was noticeable... an "Nordestino" accent (a kind of regional Brazilian accent)!! They could even reproduce the accent when singing!?!?

Talking about Japanese people, of course there were some present at the party (as some other foreigners as well). But most of them already are used to "Brazilian behavior", have been in Brazil already, have interest for the culture and such... Even some ladies we (some other Brazilian exchange students and me) met there could be more "Brazilian" than we... At least they have more interest about "Brazilian things" than we do...

For those wondering about the title, there was a bingo game. And I usually don't get nothing from such things. This time, though, I "bingoed" for the second prize - a bicycle! Yey! But a little girl (5 year old I guess) also did at the same time. I felt like giving up the prize that time...

So, to decide who'd get the second and who'd get the third (a soccer ball), I played rock-paper-scissors against her mother (it kept getting worse, huh?)... and I won.

A meaningless victory, though.

Feeling bad and sorry for the little girl, I decided to have a talk with the girl's mother and ask for a trade... her prize for mine.

She was very nice, saying that's a good thing that a child learn to lose sometimes and such, and was refusing to trade, especially because she also had a boy who liked the ball. Also, we had a common problem: we didn't know how to take the bike back to our homes. In my case, I was in Kobe and my house is in Kyoto (Uji, actually). And she was in a similar situation as well... Interesting that both didn't actually want the bike when the game started... is it karma?

Well, but there were people who wanted the bike. As the two brothers (the girl I "stole" the bike from and her brother) found the bike laying around while I was talking with the mother, he forgot about the ball and both started playing with the bike. At that point the mother and I realised that trading would be better...

Now the kids have a bike (I wonder who'll get it?), I have a ball and everyone's happy.

But I can't help thinking... Am I too soft-hearted?