BrazilFoundation & Brazil Child Health...

BrazilFoundation  &  Brazil Child Health invite your family to II Benefit Festa Junina “Children Helping Children”  Sunday, June 3rd, 2012  - 4:00-7:00 pm. Metropolitan Pavilion at 125 West 18th St, New York. 125 West 18th Street, New York. BrazilFoundation and Brazil Child Health are teaming up to create a benefit event for Children and their Families to enjoy, while raising funds to provide access to education and health to underprivileged children in Brazil.  The Festa Junina will be a cultural family-event featuring traditional dance, typical food, carnival games, crafts, and more.  Music and entertainment by Nanny Assis Forró Quarteto. Proceeds from the event will be split between both organizations and invested in education and health initiatives in Brazil. 

This is an event for the whole family; Kids and parents will enjoy. June Festival, also known as festas de São João, is an annual Brazilian celebration historically related to European Midsummer, which takes place in June, in the beginning of the Brazilian winter. These festivities, which were introduced by the Portuguese during the colonial period, are celebrated nationwide, but are particularly associated with the Northeast region. At the region, which is largely characterized by the arid or semi-arid landscape, these popular festivals not only coincide with the end of the rainy seasons of most states in the northeast but they also provide the people with an opportunity to give thanks to  São Jõao (St. John) for the rain.  They also celebrate rural life and feature typical clothing, food and dance (particularly quadrilha).  São João also coincides with the corn harvest. Special dishes served during São João are made with corn, such as canjica and pamonha.  Like Saint John's Day in Portugal, it celebrates marital union.  The "quadrilha" features couple formations around a mock wedding whose bride and groom are the central attraction of the dancing.  The celebrations usually take place in an arraial, a huge tent made of raw material that used to be reserved for special parties in old rural areas.  Men dress up as farm boys with large straw hats and women wear pigtails, freckles, painted gap teeth and red-checkered dresses, all in a loving tribute to the origins of Brazilian country music, and of themselves.  However, nowadays, São João festivities are popular in urban areas and among all social classes.  In the Northeast, they are as popular as Carnival.  Like during Carnival, these festivities involve costume-wearing (in this case, peasant costumes), visual spectacles (fireworks display) and folk dancing.