Archive for April, 2011
Holy Week in Brazil Posted by polyana on Apr 18, 2011
Holy Week, Semana Santa, for Christians all over the world, started yesterday. The Brazilian Catholic population celebrates Semana Santa like most other countries, but a few special plays around the country makes the Brazilian celebrations unique – Procissão do Fogaréu em Goiás Velho This procession is held on Holy Thursday, and is mostly famous in Goiás…
Cocada de Páscoa Posted by Rachel on Apr 12, 2011
Easter is coming up, and there are many delicious Brazilian recipes this holiday. But for those of you with a sweet tooth, cocada de Páscoa is a great recipe to try. The ingredients are fairly simple: condensed milk, eggs, coconut shavings, margarine, sugar, chocolate, and heavy cream. Cocada de Páscoa – Easter Coconut Pastry Ingredientes…
Brazilian Recipes: Vegetarian Feijoada Posted by polyana on Apr 12, 2011
Being Catholic, for lent, I gave up meat and fish. All of it. I’m a vegetarian for 40 days! And for those who live in Brazil, or know anything about Brazilian cuisine… it’s not an easy task. Fortunately, a couple of my friends from work are vegetarians, so they’ve been able to help me out…
How to Say “What’s Up” in Portuguese Posted by Rachel on Apr 10, 2011
We’ve talked about similar slang expressions in the past, but for beginners, it’s helpful to know a few ways to say “what’s up?” Keep in mind that these expressions are to be used in informal circumstances amongst friends. 1. E aí? This is the easiest and most common way to say “what’s up?” in Portuguese…
Desejo a vocês Posted by Rachel on Apr 8, 2011
Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987) is one of Brazil’s most celebrated modern poets. We’ve read a bit of his work before, but today, we’re going to look at one of his untitled poems and learn some vocabulary. It’s simple and straight forward, and it’s also emblematic of Brazilian culture. Desejo a vocês Fruto do mato…
Feel Better in Portuguese Posted by Rachel on Apr 5, 2011
If you want to tell someone who is sick or injured to feel better, here are a few ways to do so. 1. Melhoras This is the simplest way to tell someone to feel better, with just a single word. Você está bem? – Are you ok? Não, estou doente. – No, I’m sick. Melhoras!…
What’s Pagode? Posted by polyana on Apr 4, 2011
Following up on Rachel’s post on ExaltaSamba, I thought I’d talk a little bit about what pagode (pronounce pah-gaw-gee) actually IS. There are a lot of different interpretations of the word pagode, and you will often hear a lot of Brazilians downplaying this sub-genre of samba. I myself, will oftentimes hear, “Eu gosto de samba…