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Monday, 01 January 2007 |
The crowd walks by, all dressed in white for new years, holding half empty bottles of liquor over their heads, singing to a song played by the guitarist on the corner. The song is sad and soft and smooth. He plays songs by the Tribalistas, a kind of Brazilian super group made up of several of the most popular musicians of the day. They are walking en masse, mostly in bare feet or flip-flops, Havianas the brand of choice. There is the odor of humanity as they flow past, the crowd moving in one direction, down, towards the second beach where the huge party will be held. The women are carrying flowers to throw into the water, yellow for money, red for love, and white for peace. Only the women throw the flowers. The girls in our group had gone to get some. The red flowers were sold out. There’s probably something telling in that.
There are little lizards climbing on the walls, the people smile and greet each other warmly. Tonight many are strangers, in a few hours they may be intimate. This is a party for young singles of child-bearing years. The morals here are… different. People openly have sex on the beach under the moonlight. They make a slight pretense of going some distance off, or hiding behind a rock or something, but it happens regardless. All that is later of course. First comes the festas, and the dancing, and the rituals in the water. It’s seven hops over seven little waves. And a wish for each one. People wear white to celebrate rebirth in the new year, and enter the water. The flowers are thrown to the water goddess. The sex comes later. All vestiges of the African traditions that are now firmly rooted in the modern Brazilian culture.
Such beauty: the moon, the fireworks, the whole crowd moving together to the music blaring from the huge speakers placed on the beach. Happy 2007.
 posted by goat hill dreamer @ 9:03 AM |
Recent Writings
One of the best things about Argentina is something called "sobre mesa." The literal translation is "on the table" or "about the table." What it actually means is to sit around and talk with everyone at the table after having eaten a meal together, particularly dinner. You may be wondering why I'd even point this out, as many people in the US and other countries may feel they do this already. But in Argentina (and perhaps other countries in Latin America as well), they take it several steps further. Here people will literally sit for hours after dinner discussing almost anything, telling stories, and just spending time. It's not really something that's done in the US, and it's a beautiful thing. We're often too busy with the next place to go, the family splitting to the four corners of the house to return to their video games, internet, and TV shows. There's not enough time to sit and listen to details of each other's lives.
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VLSI Resources
I am a writer and traveler and this site is dedicated to those interests. You may find useful information for travel, camping, motorcycling, etc. I intend to have a lot of articles here eventually, but until then please enjoy my blogs and accompanying photos from my last motorcycle trip around the USA over the past summer. I also have some photos from the NY to Ushuaia trip in 1999, and they can be found on the media page.
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