Festa do Pinhão

Every year in the mountain Serra region of Brazil the citizens of Lages, Santa Catarina hold the festival of the pines. In this most southern and thus coldest region of Brazil there is a pine tree that grows a fruit that when smashed open has large cockroach resembling mahogany colored seeds. These seeds are steamed,cooked and then eaten. So logically the people of the region are so proud of these pines they hold a week long festival where people from all over the country flock to, including yours truly.

Thursday was the day of Corpus Christi (I'm learning about all types of catholic holidays I never knew existed!) Anyways I had the day off and people recommended checking out this festival as it celebrates the local culture in a colorful and vibrant way. I made a reservation with an excursion company that promised to take me from Florianópolis to the party and back all within 12 hours for R$30 Reais. (20 dollars more or less, I haven't checked the exchange rate in a while? Are we still behind the Serbian currency?)


I got to downtown and shuffled through a large procession of devoted Catholics. I have to say it really was more of a dirge, if there is a people who know how to walk slowly it's the Brazilian Catholics. Anyways I'll attach a video of the "parade" which the paper quoted as saying the promise of that parade was that it would was going to reach a level of Catholicism never demonstrated before in any of the other catholic pride parades.


We left around 6 o'clock in a white and yellow school van. The route was perilous as we climbed through mountainous peaks. The trip was 3 hours and I could feel the cold air advancing as we passed 18-wheelers around sharp turns. The driver blasted pagode music a popular derivative of samba that will get no further mention on this blog.

We arrived at the festival I bought my ticket through a small hole that smelled of the recently chopped pine that covered the exterior walls of the ticket shack. $10 reais and a wand-swept metal detection later I was in. I ate some food I had brought along for the journey and watched a traditional Gaúcho performance. The Gaúchos whom are spread across the Southern Brazilian, Northern Argentine, Uruguayan and Paraguayan borders are a people whose dress, dialect, music, food, beverage are descendants of Spanish and Indian traditions. Oh yeah, and they have really cool hats. Technically the people from Santa Catarina are not Gaúchos and their traditions generally reflect those of the Azorean, Italian and German immigrants. However, the people of the Santa Catarina Serra share much of these Gaúcho traditions with those of the most Southern State of Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul. (Did I already mention the hats?)




I'm still amazed by the amount of contrast a visitor can witness only traveling a few hours. I met a nice couple from a city called Nova Trento, which was settled by Trento Italian immigrants in the 18th century. They explained to me that across SC there is a myriad of dialects that are derived from German and Italian immigrants native tongues. They explained to me the non-self explanatory process of eating a pinhão. The seed of the celebrated pine. They are warm and spongy with a slight salty taste.

I experimented all the food and beverages available including Quentão and Choconaque. Quentão (very warm) is wine, pineapple, apple, ginger and cinnamon cooked in a big pot. Not very alcoholic but I liked talking to the lady who served me a few cups so it was worth it in the end. Choconaque is cognac with hot cocoa. After that I stuck to beer.

I met some nice girls from the area and they brought me to a stage that featured Gaúcho Rock music. Gaúcho music is a pulsating, undulating, jaunty and bouncy style that was masterfully demonstrated to me through the suggestive dancing of my newfound friends. Oh yeah and the band had some cool hats.

But all good things must come to an end so I decided to finish off my night with a sandwich. The name of sandwich escapes me at the moment but it consisted of no less than sausage, steak, pinhão and coração de frango. I realized about half way through I had bitten off more than I could chew with the chicken-heart stuffed sandwich. Oh well when in Rome, or at least Lages.