Happy Music Friday!
Today we travel to Brazil, a country with much more to offer than just being the host of the World Cup. Brazil is brilliant mixture of races and ethnicity, resulting in rich diversity. Being the largest country in both South America and the Latin American region, do you know where the name "Brazil comes from? The word "Brazil" comes from brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology "red like an ember", formed from Latin brasa ("ember") and the suffix -il (from -iculum or -ilium). As brazilwood produces a deep red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. Through the 16th century, massive amounts of brazilwood were harvested by indigenous peoples (mostly Tupi) along the Brazilian coast, who sold the timber to European traders (mostly Portuguese, but also French) in return for assorted European consumer goods. The official name of the land, in original Portuguese records, was the "Land of the Holy Cross" (Terra da Santa Cruz), but European sailors and merchants commonly called it simply the "Land of Brazil" (Terra do Brasil) on account of the brazilwood trade. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official name. Early sailors sometimes also called it the "Land of Parrots" (Terra di Papaga). In the Guarani language, an official language of Paraguay, Brazil is called "Pindorama". This was the name the indigenous population gave to the region, meaning "land of the palm trees". And, the land of great musicians, like Toquinho & Gilberto Gil, here singing together “Tarde em Itapoã”. Enjoy the music, and have a wonderful weekend!
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Throughout history, summer solstice celebrations have been an important element of social, cultural, and religious life in many Spanish cities and towns, especially those close to the sea. Originally a pagan Celtic ritual on the shortest night of the year, the holiday was Christianized during the 5th century by the deeply religious king Clovis and named "Saint John's Day" after Saint John the Baptist, who was born on the 24th of July.
Most celebrations take place on the eve of the Saint's birthday with fireworks, bonfires, music, singing and dancing. In some places there are additional activities such as jumping through flames of bonfires for good luck, or taking a cleansing dip in the ocean to purify oneself for the new season. During the Galician Conjuro de la Queimada the soul is purified by drinking orujo, a traditional Galician liqueur which is lit on fire in a clay pot, while "witches" recite an ancient incantation to banish the evil spirits. Whereas in most places the element of fire has remained one of the major attractions of the Saint John celebrations, the city of Ciutadella on Menorca—a small Balearic island with a fascinating history of foreign rulers—developed rituals of its own, which are nowhere else to be found. There, during their patron saint's Festes de Sant Joan, more than 100 Menorca-bred horses, “La Menorquina” breed, and their expert riders, known as the cavallers, are the main protagonists in the festivities, together with a committee of caixers representing the ancient society of Ciutadella. This committee consists of a caixer capella (a priest in charge of the religious events), a caixer senyor (a member of the ancient nobility) who is helped by the fabioler heralding the events that are coming up, two caixers pagesos (farmers keeping order in the cavalcades), a caixer menestral (representing artisans), and a caixer fadri (the flagbearer). On these days, the horses are dressed up and ridden through the streets where the island youths encourage the horses to jump and to dance for as long as possible on their back legs. The festivity is ruled by a traditional protocol. The protocol is so strict that even the costumes that each one of the ‘caixers’ wears is different as well as the ornaments on the stud horses are different according to the rider. Although it may seem that these festivities where the horses mix with the crowds, while they perform their jumps, could be dangerous, nothing can be further from truth. The horses are perfectly trained to avoid hurting those present; in fact, they are trained all year round especially for this day. - Alba Serrano-Miro The show was one of 10 performances that the Actors’ Gang put on this month as part of a two-city, two-week visit to China. While most of the audience may not have even be aware of the award winning actor and director, Tim Robbins, the audience reception was very positive. “The audiences here are incredible,” Mr. Robbins said, “so much warmer than in the States.” He said that, before arriving in China, he was anxious about whether the comedic elements would translate, but it appeared that they did. See this article for more on the performance in Beijing and Shanghai. While interest in western style theater performance is relatively new for the Chinese audience, many young ones seemed to appreciate the open, free style of performance that is easily understood even without the help of sutitles. The world can definitely learn to communicate and understand each other better by learning and experiencing art and cultures from the other side of the world. - Yumi Zaic |
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May 2016
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