In June Brazil gets a full special color as a whole, but the junine court, as it is named, has, in addition to the traditional dance groups, other cultural events that are unique and only exist in the State of Pará. The Bois de máscaras (masked oxen) with a Vienna carnival style and the Cordões de pássaros with a magazine theater style, are traditions that struggle to stay alive in the popular imagination, but it still attracts fans that passes this folk art from generation to generation. The municipality of São Caetano de Odivelas in northeastern of Para, is a ghetto of the maintenance of what is a very original way of bumba-meu-boi, the Bois de máscaras, which the evolution keeps their own characteristics with a peculiar tone of carnival. Practically there are no records on how it all started, but older people tend to remember that, little by little, the comedies of the bumba-meu-boi were replaced and upgraded. In Sao Caetano one of the names that is reference when talking about Boi de Máscara is José Chagas Zeferino, 82, guardian of Tinga, considered by many the oldest Boi de Máscaras in activity in the city, with 73 years. Another Boi is the traditional Faceiro, which was named in 1998 when, after 51 years of hiatus, was rescued. Its origin dates back to the year 1937. The new Faceiro, made from the skull of a real bull, was made by Antonio dos Reis Viégas, known as Master of the Kings, the greatest architect in the area in the region. “I was raised in the countryside, with my parents, sailing, fishing, but my aim always was creating things, drawing,” says Dos Reis, 78. “Man needs these things. It is not only to live as a cow. Man has to build things to be happy. As the music, “ he teaches. Besides the Boi de Máscaras, there are also among the characters the Cabeçudos, dolls with huge heads made exclusively by Edgar de Santana Garcia, 56 years,
LATITUDE 6
Far beyond the Quadrilhas Juninas The month of June in Brazil is a real party in honor of St. Anthony, St. Peter and St. John, but in Pará there are folklorical demonstrations that exist only here.
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