Feliz Natal!
Happy holidays to you all! This Christmas and holiday season has definitely been one for the books. It was...different, in about every way possible! Despite the obvious lack of snow, this Christmas gave me a bit of culture shock. Here in a way, Christmas is strictly religious, there is very little commercial aspect such as what we have in the United States. Families exchange presents, but on a much much smaller scale. Most people in Brasil, go to the beach for at least three weeks over the holidays, either staying with family or in a second home.
Normally at this time I would be staying with my second family the Fronzas, who went to the beach for Christmas (as most families do, it's customary in a way.) But I decided to stay with first family (Rudnick) in town, and go to the beach with my second family a while later. My first family stayed in town a few days longer than most, to work in the market and hotel. Christmas Eve we went to my aunts house for dinner. (Stay tuned for my blog update about Brazilian foods) It was a normal Christmas Eve, with the given Portuguese, minus the grand present exchange. The family exchanges small tokens, my cousin gave me a ticket to get a massage, (not sure if that's trying to tell me something.) That night when we returned home on Christmas Eve, my family exchanged presents, and watched "Orange Is The New Black" on Netflix. (If you know the show you'll understand the irony.) I gave my parents some coffee from Caribou, and mugs, and they gave me flip flops, and a speedo. (The speedo isn't a joke, people actually where them here...pictures to come....I'm not joking.) Christmas Day we went to my other family for lunch, and then relaxed at home for the rest of the day. I skyped with my parents for the very first time and introduced them to my family here. I made peanut butter blossom kiss cookies and they where the bomb.com everyone loved them.
On the 27th my father, sister and I went to the beach house of my first family where we spent the next few days, on the 30th I took a bus to the beach where my second family was and stayed with them over New Years. New Years was the same, for the most part, family came over, news reports across the country about how people are celebrating, no we didn't watch the ball drop, (four hour time difference.) So lets talk superstitions for a second, brazilians are very superstitious, especially about the new year. In the third picture below, you can see we are all wearing white, its bad luck not to, and there are yellow and white balloons, which are the traditional new year colors. White represents peace, and yellow is money; in hopes that it will be a peaceful and profitable year. Another way to have good luck is to have cash in your shoe on new years eve. On a more personal side, the color of the underwear you have on during new years eve represents what you want in the upcoming year, white-peace, yellow-wealth, red-love, green-adventure. Mine were hot pink incase anyone was wondering.
I stayed at the beach with my second family until the 6th,(I have never been so tan in my life) when I came back to my city to stay with my first family who returned earlier, so I can prepare for my northeast tour on the 11th. I know the whole first/second family thing gets confusing, but just you wait, soon there will be a third family, the Liebls.
The first and second photo below is with my first family, the Rudnicks, on Christmas day, and the third is with my second family, the Fronzas, on New Years Eve.
Happy holidays to you all! This Christmas and holiday season has definitely been one for the books. It was...different, in about every way possible! Despite the obvious lack of snow, this Christmas gave me a bit of culture shock. Here in a way, Christmas is strictly religious, there is very little commercial aspect such as what we have in the United States. Families exchange presents, but on a much much smaller scale. Most people in Brasil, go to the beach for at least three weeks over the holidays, either staying with family or in a second home.
Normally at this time I would be staying with my second family the Fronzas, who went to the beach for Christmas (as most families do, it's customary in a way.) But I decided to stay with first family (Rudnick) in town, and go to the beach with my second family a while later. My first family stayed in town a few days longer than most, to work in the market and hotel. Christmas Eve we went to my aunts house for dinner. (Stay tuned for my blog update about Brazilian foods) It was a normal Christmas Eve, with the given Portuguese, minus the grand present exchange. The family exchanges small tokens, my cousin gave me a ticket to get a massage, (not sure if that's trying to tell me something.) That night when we returned home on Christmas Eve, my family exchanged presents, and watched "Orange Is The New Black" on Netflix. (If you know the show you'll understand the irony.) I gave my parents some coffee from Caribou, and mugs, and they gave me flip flops, and a speedo. (The speedo isn't a joke, people actually where them here...pictures to come....I'm not joking.) Christmas Day we went to my other family for lunch, and then relaxed at home for the rest of the day. I skyped with my parents for the very first time and introduced them to my family here. I made peanut butter blossom kiss cookies and they where the bomb.com everyone loved them.
On the 27th my father, sister and I went to the beach house of my first family where we spent the next few days, on the 30th I took a bus to the beach where my second family was and stayed with them over New Years. New Years was the same, for the most part, family came over, news reports across the country about how people are celebrating, no we didn't watch the ball drop, (four hour time difference.) So lets talk superstitions for a second, brazilians are very superstitious, especially about the new year. In the third picture below, you can see we are all wearing white, its bad luck not to, and there are yellow and white balloons, which are the traditional new year colors. White represents peace, and yellow is money; in hopes that it will be a peaceful and profitable year. Another way to have good luck is to have cash in your shoe on new years eve. On a more personal side, the color of the underwear you have on during new years eve represents what you want in the upcoming year, white-peace, yellow-wealth, red-love, green-adventure. Mine were hot pink incase anyone was wondering.
I stayed at the beach with my second family until the 6th,(I have never been so tan in my life) when I came back to my city to stay with my first family who returned earlier, so I can prepare for my northeast tour on the 11th. I know the whole first/second family thing gets confusing, but just you wait, soon there will be a third family, the Liebls.
The first and second photo below is with my first family, the Rudnicks, on Christmas day, and the third is with my second family, the Fronzas, on New Years Eve.
Hope your holidays where as wonderful as mine,
Beijos,
Noah
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