[update] São João

On June 24th, Brazilian families celebrate São João. It is a day when people make fires and set fireworks off. In general, elderly people stay at home and eat typical foods like corn, canjica, mungunzá and amendoim. The youngest ones usually go with friends to concerts in the city or at the countryside organized by the government. The children usually get dressed up as caipiras, which is the use of checked or plaid shirts (and) along with patched pants for boys, and cute checked dresses for girls.
Some streets are decorated by their own residents; they usually make one “arraial”, which is a place with colored flags and straw roofing to shelter them and their food from the rain. In some arraiás built in concert houses, there are contests among groups of typical dance like xote, xaxado and baião, we call “quadrilhas”. Everything is considered on these contests, from clothing to the choreography and many winner groups travel to another state to present and run for the best position.
By Vanessa