Festa Junina or Festa de São João

Translating literally, June Festivities or Saint John’s Festivals is a celebration on the months of June and July in Brazil. It originated from European midsummer celebrations and includes some similar traditions like a large bonfire (that seems to make a lot more sense in the southern hemisphere because it happens during winter months) and also a dance derived from palatial European court balls, modified and redefined with new meaning, related to popular and rural themes and paired with brazillian “forró” or country music.

Dressing up and dances

Traditionally everyone wears plaid shirts/dresses, straw hats, painted on gap tooths, very blatant blush on cheeks and lots of painted freckles, girls wear their hairs in pigtails and boys paint on moustaches and beards. This is the stereotypical exaggerated rural look, and is more common for kids to dress this way, while in parties with mostly adults it’s more common to just wear plaid shirts, a straw hat and do some make-up.

The dances are choreographed but very standard between places, with someone announcing vocal cues for specific dance steps, switching partners, doing coordinated group moves and sometimes ending in a mock wedding.

Traditional food

Now, the best part of it all, my favorite thing from this time of the year, THE FOOD!

The traditional foods are super delicious and mostly made out of corn, like corn cakes, cural, pamonha, but there’s also peanuts, specially sweetened peanuts, popcorn, sweet or salted, caramelized apples, quentão, which is a warm spiced drink, that may or may not be alcoholic and is one of my favorite things.

I’ll try to update the thread with some recipes later or maybe just talk more about food, but I can’t promise I actually will.

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  • SickSemper [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    10·
    10 hours ago

    ever have a weekend so gender affirming that going back to mr sir land makes you want to [REDACTED]

    god i hate being closeted at work. the scales are tipping, i need to come out soon or ill lose my mind

  • lilypad [pup/pup's, it/its]@hexbear.netEnglish
    14·
    11 hours ago
    in my shit, pass it by (neurotic? Processing)

    Kinda wish I didn’t have the whole autism+adhd -> anxiety thing going on. It sucks. Its pride month, so why do I dislike pride? Why do I look at it and feel fear and distrust? Why can’t I let go of all that? I’m hyperaware of peoples perceptions of me, and unable to read people at all. So every little thing that indicates potential social correction is a crisis, and I am never at rest in a group. I’m rarely at rest on my own. I’m tired of performing.

    I want to like pride. I want to know that people around me have my back. But all the same I see people and all I can feel is fear. I want to want to go. And a part of me does want to go. Instead I will spend this month avoiding queer people and pride events. I want to feel like I’m one of many, but I also want to be invisible. Dont look at me, but I want to be seen. Its selfcontradictory.

    I know I self isolate. I know thats bad. But I can’t bring myself to go out and meet people. I dont know what im more afraid of, people judging me, people being neutral/uncaring, or people being kind. I can’t handle kindness. Someone said they would do something nice for me earlier today and I just couldn’t take it and started silentsobbing. I almost hung up on them. Why does it hurt when people are nice to me? I want to be able to show up, and accept it, and not feel guilty for accepting something nice, not feel afraid of someone doing nice things for me, not feel pain when someone says they care about me…

    Thanks for reading if you did, thanks for being a space where I can vent/process.

    • sodium_nitride [she/her, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      3·
      6 hours ago

      Why does it hurt when people are nice to me?

      Maybe it’s because it makes your expectations stronger and makes you feel like a better type of social situation is possible, but you’re missing out?

      • lilypad [pup/pup's, it/its]@hexbear.netEnglish
        4·
        6 hours ago
        spoiler

        I… I dont know. Cause like, when people I’m not close to are kind to me, I discount it, I can push it away. But when someone knows me and cares about me… It just hurts I dont know. It just hurts. Its correlated with me actually feeling cared about.

        • sodium_nitride [she/her, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
          3·
          5 hours ago
          spoiler

          I deal with these feelings a lot as well. After spending a long time being starved, being given a single good meal only let’s you know what you’ve been missing out on, and what you might continue missing out on.

          That’s how I’ve always thought about it.

  • dorkiectomy [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    13·
    11 hours ago

    I cut my hair and it’s… cute? Hopefully it’s still cute tomorrow. I’ve been cutting my own hair for a long time now, but it’s a lot harder when it’s not a clipper fade!

    • dorkiectomy [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      9·
      11 hours ago

      It was hard to commit to cause I’ve been growing it out for the last many months, but sometimes you get a bad enough case of triangle head that you overcome your fears I guess.

  • RION [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    12·
    13 hours ago

    I think I got a “How you doing” from a guy I walked past to get to the train? But I didn’t dare look so he might’ve been on the phone or something? I am wearing a tighter shirt today.

    Potential ewwphoria it is

    • lilypad [pup/pup's, it/its]@hexbear.netEnglish
      7·
      11 hours ago

      Wait is that phrase a picking up women thing? I always (well, its only happened a handful of times) respond to it genuinely and ask how they’re doing, and then people get weird and stop talking to me… Have I been misinterpreting everything? I dont mean coming from friends, I mean when it comes from strangers.

  • RION [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    11·
    16 hours ago

    “Just the man I wanted to see”

    “Alright man”

    “Thank you my man”

    Just kill me why don’t you. I could maybe bear it if not for that new girl I mentioned being in earshot. I don’t want her perception of me poisoned like that…

      • RION [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
        5·
        13 hours ago

        They’re not even assholes, it’s a mix of people who’ve known me since pre-transition that I haven’t clued in and people who are just learning via context clues when the first group calls me a man. Can’t really blame em, especially when I wear a jacket all the time

        She’s only here a few days a week so I’m hoping the next one I can just find her alone and level with her…