Hi SGland!! @missy @rambo @jacqueline @sean @mickey 😘
October is my favorite month, where most of the things I like are related, and to show that feeling this is the theme of my bloghomework!
Legends in Brazil are very rich and detailed, directly influenced by the miscegenation in the origin of the Brazilian people. it is necessary to take into account that a legend does not mean a lie, nor an absolute truth, what we must consider is that a story to be created, defended and to have survived in people's memory, it must have at least a portion of true facts.
Many researchers, historians, or folklorists, claim that legends are only the fruit of popular imagination, but as we know the legends in many peoples are "the books in the memory of the wisest".
We must also consider the difference between Myth and Legend. Myth is the character that the legend deals with, because the Legend is the Story about a certain Myth.
one of the legends that I always heard and like the most, given the meaning and cultural feelings, is the legend of the pink dolphin, and the saci.
The famous Saci-Pererê, or simply Saci, is one of the most symbolic characters in Brazilian folklore. In fact, even its name is very Brazilian: Saci, it is a name from the term Tupi, and it represents the name of a bird. In honor of this character, several Brazilian cities came to institute October 31 as the Day of Saci. The date was chosen as a way of reacting to American culture, which celebrates Halloween on that day, and of exaltation of Brazilian culture, highlighting saci, a very strong national symbol.
a comedian metal band here in Brazil, called detonator, created a song talking about it hahaha only that is brazilian knows this icon ♫ SACI - DETONATOR
Another culture's influence in our legend is the red beanie. Many people do not even imagine it, but Saci's “hat” comes from the folklore of northern Portugal, that is, from European colonization. So much so that the cap was used by the legendary Trasgo, who also had supernatural powers.
Another coincidence of this European character with our folk character, he is also known for being a devilish character, full of mischief. Basically, the trasgo is seen as a playful being, amusing everyone, both animals and people. Exactly because of his state of mind, he can cause great inconvenience.
Like Saci-Pererê, the trasgo is also known for making beans burn, for hiding objects, for throwing seamstresses' thimbles into holes, for braiding animal hair, and even for whistling to frighten travelers.
The legend of the dolphin, well known by the Amazonians like us, tells the story of a charming boy who delights girls and women at dances and, after seduction, takes his conquest to the river's edge and gets pregnant, plunges into the waters of that river, becoming the boto, without ever returning. After nine months, the child is born, who is appointed as “daughter of a dolphin”.
This legend, possibly born among the riverside Amazonians, is known beyond this universe and was honored through various artistic manifestations, whether in music, poetry and even portrayed in the film (Ele, o Boto) by Walter Lima Júnior.
it portrays, in a richly stylized and disguised way, scenes from the riverside daily life, ranging from teenage pregnancy to more serious problems: such as rape, pedophilia and incest.
After all, if we analyze it more carefully, we will notice that the legend of the dolphin reinforces two aspects of a culture that, although enthroned by the riverside reality, delineates how our country's history was forged, enslaving women and making their sexuality more attractive , fruit of a patriarchal society, extremely macho and misogynist.
A reflection of this is that, for the “boto-man”, narrated in the legend, sexual intercourse occurs to give him pleasure and generate a child of that “enchanted”. This aspect being irrelevant to the girl he sleeps with, so much so that this “boto-man” does not return, reinforcing the portrait of a submissive riverside woman, whose sexuality only serves as a mere instrument to satisfy the desire of this boto-man, a hero in the riverside imaginary.
Now, for the family and for that collective, that pregnancy represents a “shame” and to justify it there would only be one reason, the “enchantment”, the legend being intended to meet this “need” to “justify what happened” in that community and types of this occurrence, unfortunately, have often been buried in the banks of the banks of the Amazonian rivers and silencing many women, in the face of a circle of omission and collusion, which feeds itself, whether by the family or by the community.
But as legends are the result of intelligence, of human action, they actually reflect a thought relevant to the time when they were structured and are used as a shield to protect a certain reality that embarrasses and at the same time allows it to be liberating.
In other words, the legend created a long time ago, and told from generation to generation, often in a “stylized” way, only reinforces the girl's imagery, and after the woman, that that violation, allowed, albeit in the form of shame, by local society, it must be accepted by it, hiding behind it all years and years of violence against women, as well as the high rates of rape, often within the family, in the corners of the Amazon.
how is halloween celebrated where you live?
XOXO