Thursday, January 19, 2012

Bumba meu Boi

We live in a old, old town.. it's a small fishing village on the edge of the river. The people that live in our small town are very Catholic and very much into traditions..

This town was the first town my grandparents came as missionaries to in 1970. This is the town my dad's family is from, the place I was born and raised till I was 8 when we moved away to start another church.

One of the many traditions is the "Bumba-meu-Boi" during the Carnival season.. ever since I was a kid, I remember seeing this folkloric event every year.

You can read about Bumba-meu-Boi and Carnival here and here in case you're wondering what it is.

Every evening out in our little town, hundreds of people come together to gather around dancers dressed in several crafted ox costumes. There are usually 6-10 "oxen" and there is always a contest to see who dances best and also has the most colorful and bright ox. They're also out to scare the children and chase after them ;)

The "parade" goes through the whole town with the drummers behind beating their drums and hundreds of people follow it through town...some people (like us) just sit in rocking chair in front of our homes and watch the parade as it passes by...:) Lazy, lazy, huh?!?!

You can see the oxen to your right...
This is the town's main entertainment and it starts in early January and only ends after Carnival which is February 20th this year.

To my amazement, our town is the only one in our state who still has this tradition going. When I saw the parade this week, I was reminded of my childhood days, the parade goes right in front of my grandparents house so we were always able to see it up close. On Tuesday my hubby and son got to experience the Bumba-meu-Boi parade for the first time! I was so glad they were able to see the tradition that has followed me through my childhood days.
I also got a video clip so you can hear the drums and kind of get a picture of what it all sounds like :)

So if you've ever wondered what some of the brazilian people do for entertainment in the evenings, now you know...:)

2 comments:

LeAnna said...

Fascinating! We just learned about Carnival on the kids movei Rio, haha!

Unknown said...

Rio is a very cute movie ;) It's very typical brazilian... I laugh and laugh when I watch it ;)