VER-O-PESO: A SENSORIAL EXPERIENCE

Ver-o-peso market is a market hall in Belém, Brazil located at Guajará Bay riverside.
It is called "Ver-o-Peso" following a colonial era tradition, since the tax collector's main post was located there, which was called "Casa do Haver-o-peso" ("House of Taxes Due over Weight"). It was in the "Haver-o-peso house" that the taxes over goods brought from the Amazon forests, rivers and countryside should be paid to the Portuguese crown, but only after their weight was measured, hence the name, which later suffered a contraction.

Nowadays, the Ver-o-peso complex contains the Açaí Fair, a free open market where açaí berry merchants sell the fruit in natura for açaí juice shops, the Clock Square, with an iron-cast clock tower brought from England, the Ver-o-peso docks, where native fishes from Amazon are unloaded from boats and sold fresh, the Iron Market, a gothic prefab structure where fish is sold, the Solar da Beira space, a colonial building where art expositions often take place, and the neoclassical Meat Market, across the street, with iron-cast stairs and cubicles. There's also the free market, where craftsmanship, natural essence parfums, typical food and native fruits are sold.
It is located a few meters away from Feliz Lusitânia complex, a gathering of 16th and 18th century buildings including a fortress, an old hospital transformed into a museum, and two churches: a baroque one where there is a sacred art museum, and Belém's cathedral.All this area has been declared national patrimony by the National Historical Museum (Brazil).

CARE FOR SOME FEIJOADA?

Feijoada (Portuguese pronunciation: [fejʒuˈada]) is a stew of beans with beef and pork, which is a typical dish in Portuguese and Brazilian Cuisine, is also typical in Angola, Mozambique, Goa, India and other former Portuguese colonies. In Brazil, feijoada is considered by many as the national dish. Feijoada was brought to South America by the Portuguese, based in ancient Feijoada recipes from the Portuguese regions of Beira, Estremadura, and Trás-os-Montes.

The name comes from feijão, Portuguese for "beans". The Brazilian feijoada is prepared with black turtle beans (also white, pinto and red beans), a variety of salted pork and beef products, such as pork trimmings (ears, tail, feet), bacon, smoked pork ribs, and at least two types of smoked sausage and jerked beef (loin and tongue).

This stew is best prepared over low fire in a thick clay pot. The final dish has the beans and meat pieces barely covered by a dark purplish-brown broth. The taste is strong, moderately salty but not spicy, dominated by the flavors of black bean and meat stew. It is traditionally served with rice, and accompanied by chopped fried collard greens (couve mineira), lightly roasted coarse cassava flour (farofa) and peeled and sliced orange. Other common side dishes are boiled or deep-fried cassava, deep-fried bananas, and pork rinds (torresmo). A pot of hot pepper sauce is often provided on the side. The meal is often washed down with cachaça, caipirinha, or beer.

Since it is a rather heavy dish that takes several hours to cook, feijoada is consumed in Brazil only occasionally, always at lunch time. Traditionally, restaurants will offer it as the "daily's special" only once or twice a week, usually on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  

And voilà! Bon Appetit!!!!

FORRÓ DANCE: HERE WE GO!

Forró (Portuguese pronunciation: [foˈʁɔ]) is a kind of Northeastern Brazilian dance as well as a word used to denote the different genres of music which accompanies the dance. There are several theories on the origin of the name but the one often heard popularly in Brazil is that the word forró is a derivative of the English expression "for all" and that it originated in the early 1900s. English engineers on the Great Western Railway of Brazil near Recife would throw balls on weekends and classify them as either only for railroad personnel or for the general populace ("for all"). This belief was somewhat reinforced by a similar practice by USAF personnel stationed at the Natal Air Force Base during World War II, but it is not possible because before the USAF went to Natal, the name "Forró" was already in use.

 Forró is the most popular genre in Brazil's Northeast. It is the name of the dance. Different genres of music can be used to dance the forró. Traditionally, all of these music genres uses only three instruments (accordion, zabumba and a metal triangle). The dance also become very different as you cross the borders of the Northeast into the Southeast. As part of the popular culture it is in constant change. The dance known as college forró is the most common style between the middle-class students of colleges and universities in the Southeast, having influences of other dances like salsa and samba-rock. The traditional music used to dance the forró was brought to the Southeast from the Northeast by Luiz Gonzaga, who transformed the baião (a word originated from baiano and assigned a warm-up for artists to search for inspiration before playing) into a more sophisticated rhythm. In later years, forró achieved popularity throughout Brazil, in the form of a slower genre known as xote, that has been influenced by pop-rock music to become more acceptable by Brazilian youth of Southeast, South and Central regions.

Behold! The Farricocos are coming!

In Goiás, the most popular festival is the Procession of the Fogaréu, which occurs on the Wednesday before Easter Sunday. It is one of the most traditional events of Holy Week in Brazil and only in Angra dos Reis is a similar procession celebrated. During the ceremony the farricocos (the people dressed in medieval robes and hoods that accompany processions of penitence) simulate the arresting of Jesus by running through the streets of the town at midnight with torches to the sound of drums. There is a great resemblance with some traditions that take place in Spain at the same time of year especially in Toledo and Sevilla. The darkness, the torches, and the speed of the men with covered faces create a medieval atmosphere, frightening and exciting.

It was believed that the devil was loose in the streets of the town on that night, frightening all, especially the children. Originally, only men could participate but today that has changed. Superstitions like the presence of a werewolf and a headless mule are also manifested in this popular festival.

Tourists come from far and wide to witness the spectacle.

SPEAKING OF FLOWERS...

Holambra (from the words Holland-America-Brazil) is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2009 (estimated) is 10,224 and the area is 64.422 km². The elevation is 600 m on average.
The colony Holambra and The Cooperativa Agropecuária de Holambra (Cattle Farming Co-operative of Holambra) were founded in 1948 by Catholic Dutch immigrants at the farm Fazenda Ribeirão, situated between the cities Jaguariúna, Santo Antonio de Posse, Artur Nogueira and Cosmópolis. After a referendum in 1991 where 98% of the population voted in favor of political autonomy for the area, Holambra gained city status in January 1993.
The cows that were shipped in from the Netherlands by the initial colonists did not survive the heat and tropical diseases so the colonists diversified to pig and chicken farming. As the colony around the farm grew in the following decades, the focus shifted from agriculture to horticulture.
Famous for its large production of flowers and plants and for the yearly event Expoflora, (this year it will be held from Aug. 30 to Sep. 23).  Holambra receives thousands of tourists each year. It accounts for 40% of the domestic production of flowers and 80% for exports. Every year the flower fair Expoflora showcases a new variety of flower grown locally.
http://www.expoflora.com.br/
http://www.turismoholambra.com.br/
Staying in a farm hotel is lots of fun! : http://hotelfazendasolardasandorinhas.com/index.asp

SYNCRETISM IN BRASIL (African religions and catholic as one)

Yemanja is an orisha, originally of the Yoruba religion, who has become prominent in many Afro-American religions. Africans from what is now called Yorubaland brought Yemaya/Yemoja and a host of other deities/energy forces in nature with them when they were brought to the shores of the Americas as captives. She is the ocean, the essence of motherhood, and a protector of children.

The goddess is known as Yemanja, Iemanja or Janaina in Brazilian Candomble and Umbanda religions.
The Umbanda religion worships Iemanja as one of the seven orixas of the African Pantheon. She is the Queen of the Ocean, the patron deity of the fishermen and the survivors of shipwrecks, the feminine principle of creation and the spirit of moonlight. A syncretism happens between the catholic Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes (Our Lady of the Seafaring) and the orixa Iemanja of the African Mithology. Sometimes, a feast can honor both.
In Salvador, Bahia, Iemanja is celebrated by Candomble on the very same day consecrated by the Catholic Church to Our Lady of Seafaring (Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes). Every February 2, thousands of people line up at dawn to leave their offerings at her shrine in Rio Vermelho.
Gifts for Iemanja usually include flowers and objects of female vanity (perfume, jewelry, combs, lipsticks, mirrors). These are gathered in large baskets and taken out to the sea by local fishermen. Afterwards a massive street party ensues.
Iemanjá is also celebrated every December 8 in Salvador, Bahia. The Festa da Conceicao da Praia (Feast to Our Lady of Conception of the church at the beach) is a city holiday dedicated to the Catholic saint and also to Iemanja. Another feast occurs on this day in the Pedra Furada, Monte Serrat in Salvador, Bahia, called the Gift to Iemanja, when fishermen celebrate their devotion to the Queen of the Ocean.
Outside Bahia State, Iemanja is celebrated mainly by followers of the Umbanda religion.
On New Year's Eve in Rio de Janeiro, millions of cariocas, of all religions, dressed in white gather on Copacabana beach to greet the New Year, watch fireworks, and throw (white) flowers and other offerings into the sea for the goddess in the hopes that she will grant them their requests for the coming year. Some send their gifts to Iemanja in wooden toy boats. Paintings of Iemanja are sold in Rio shops, next to paintings of Jesus and other Catholic saints. They portray her as a woman rising out of the sea. Small offerings of flowers and floating candles are left in the sea on many nights at Copacabana.
In Sao Paulo State, Iemanja is celebrated in the two first weekends of December on the shores of Praia Grande city. During these days many vehicles garnished with Iemanja icons and colors (white and blue) roam from the São Paulo mountains to the seashore, some of them traveling hundreds of miles. Thousands of people rally near Iemanja's statue in Praia Grande beach.
In Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul State, on February 2, the image of Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes is carried to the port of Pelotas. Before the closing of the catholic feast, the boats stop and host the Umbanda followers that carry the image of Iemanjá, in a syncretic meeting that is watched by thousand of people on the shore.

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA

SOME AMAZING PICS

HAVE YOU EVER COME ACROSS ANY OF THESE?:

 

A carranca (Portuguese, literally "scowl"; pronounced cah-han-ka) is a type of figurehead attached to river craft which is attributed with power to protect the boatmen from the river's evil spirits. They were once commonly found on the lower Rio São Francisco in the river's Northeast region of Brazil. The carranca is most commonly a figure of a human or an animal.

Rio São Francisco (São Francisco River)

Today most authentic carrancas are only found in museums. Modern, more stylized versions are sometimes seen as decorations in restaurants or homes and commonly seen in tourist shops of the states of Bahia, Pernambuco, Sergipe and Alagoas where the historic use was found on the lower Rio São Francisco. These range from key chain figures up to very large ones a meter or more in height and made from large tree trunks. Many, if not most of those are in the carranca-vampiro style rather than the classic boat figurehead styles of the past. The difference may be seen by comparing the photos of classic styles compared to the tourist versions pictured here.

Classic versions were painted, frequently chalk white with black hair, gaping red mouths and white fangs. The most common tourist versions follow similar schemes. A more modern, decorative unpainted version is often in natural wood and even polished.
While most of the modern tourist versions are produced quickly in quantity using one of several patterns a few are made by more artistic wood workers and show unique design or interpretations of "functional" carrancas from history. A few of these are "museum quality" art.

http://obviousmag.org/sphere/2013/02/carranca.html

http://triocurima.blogspot.com/2009/05/carrancas-do-rio-sao-francisco-as.html 

http://planetaterra2010.wordpress.com/2008/03/02/rio-sao-francisco-ii/