Ham-flavoured corn cheerios and miniwafers milk chocolate coated.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Greetings
Today I'm gonna talk about how Brazilians greet when We meet publicly. We are worldwide "famous" for being a warm people, and We're proud of that. Other cultures may find weird how We hug and kiss strangers as friends even when We just met them for the first time, specially because in many cultures people Don't hug and kiss even friends.
In an informal context We greet and farewell people hugging and kissing although it's not consider proper in business situations, for example. We are plainly awared that our formal etiquette preaches hierarchic introdution as follows: The introducer presents the younger to the older, the employee to the boss, the friend to his own parents, the pupil to the teacher and so on. BUT, young people don't care about that anymore. By the way We Don't even care introducing people by their complete names, only the first name is enough. Other feature of this formal etiquette is always saying something about the two introduced ones, any brief information, mostly in parties when thus the newcomer can start interacting without depending on the host all the time.
*Men and women: some women may prefer start greeting shaking hands, or only shaking hands. Outside a business context it's considered suspect. Make seems they are too snob for hugging and kissing. Anyway the hands shake is a choice, followed by the kisses ceremony. Girl and guy kiss each other same time on the face, in a way We Don't really kiss faces but the air behind their heads hahahaha. Single girls receive three kisses cause it's said to bring a fortunate marriadge for them. Married ones receive only two kisses. The first cheek offered is always the right one, then the left (and then the right again for single girls) and being left-handed is not an excuse to offer the left cheek first, exactly because, when right and left cheeks are offered same time, obviously lips meet and it's not the objective at all. It's embarassing. After kissing, or while kissing, a short hug can happen, in which the girl's boobs barely touch the guy's chest, never press it. It's what We call an unpersonal hugging.
*Friends women and men: the hug can be longer and stronger, with chests pressure but no waist pressure at all. The two or three kisses are the same.
*Hands Shake: The offered hand is always the right one. The grab must be firm but not hurtful. A weak shake is interpreted as weak personality, or disgust by touching the greeted person. The hand palm must be dry and it's not offensive to clean it first, with a handkerchief or on our own skirt or pants.
*Women and women: same rules as above.
*Men and men: Men Don't kiss. Ever. They greet with a hug, unpersonal or longer depending on They be friends or not. They also use to slap each other's shoulder, loudly, the louder the better, with the left hand. 3 or 4 slaps are enough. Friends slap more times. Friends slap hurtfully for fun. Other type of manly greet is hanging the left arm on the other guy's left shoulder and slap his belly very softly, only once or twice.
*Women slaps: girls can also slap people's shoulders. The louder the better but never hurtfully.
*Business situations: no hugs. No kisses. Gentle shoulder slaps are allowed, hands shake is mandatory, no matter if boys or girls.
In an informal context We greet and farewell people hugging and kissing although it's not consider proper in business situations, for example. We are plainly awared that our formal etiquette preaches hierarchic introdution as follows: The introducer presents the younger to the older, the employee to the boss, the friend to his own parents, the pupil to the teacher and so on. BUT, young people don't care about that anymore. By the way We Don't even care introducing people by their complete names, only the first name is enough. Other feature of this formal etiquette is always saying something about the two introduced ones, any brief information, mostly in parties when thus the newcomer can start interacting without depending on the host all the time.
*Men and women: some women may prefer start greeting shaking hands, or only shaking hands. Outside a business context it's considered suspect. Make seems they are too snob for hugging and kissing. Anyway the hands shake is a choice, followed by the kisses ceremony. Girl and guy kiss each other same time on the face, in a way We Don't really kiss faces but the air behind their heads hahahaha. Single girls receive three kisses cause it's said to bring a fortunate marriadge for them. Married ones receive only two kisses. The first cheek offered is always the right one, then the left (and then the right again for single girls) and being left-handed is not an excuse to offer the left cheek first, exactly because, when right and left cheeks are offered same time, obviously lips meet and it's not the objective at all. It's embarassing. After kissing, or while kissing, a short hug can happen, in which the girl's boobs barely touch the guy's chest, never press it. It's what We call an unpersonal hugging.
*Friends women and men: the hug can be longer and stronger, with chests pressure but no waist pressure at all. The two or three kisses are the same.
*Hands Shake: The offered hand is always the right one. The grab must be firm but not hurtful. A weak shake is interpreted as weak personality, or disgust by touching the greeted person. The hand palm must be dry and it's not offensive to clean it first, with a handkerchief or on our own skirt or pants.
*Women and women: same rules as above.
*Men and men: Men Don't kiss. Ever. They greet with a hug, unpersonal or longer depending on They be friends or not. They also use to slap each other's shoulder, loudly, the louder the better, with the left hand. 3 or 4 slaps are enough. Friends slap more times. Friends slap hurtfully for fun. Other type of manly greet is hanging the left arm on the other guy's left shoulder and slap his belly very softly, only once or twice.
*Women slaps: girls can also slap people's shoulders. The louder the better but never hurtfully.
*Business situations: no hugs. No kisses. Gentle shoulder slaps are allowed, hands shake is mandatory, no matter if boys or girls.
Friday, April 02, 2010
A More Practical Begin
How Does everyday begin? Usually with a meal. Let's talk about breakfast. For some mysterious reasons not yet fully studied, most of Brazilian population wake up hungerless. Still, it's general mind families have their breakfast in home. Many families make close point of gathering all household members for at least breakfast considering one's regular occupations avert We share other meals aswell. In a regular basis, Brazilian restaurants, coffee-shops, groceries, snackbars etc. DON'T serve any breakfast at all. Hotel restaurants serve breakfast only for guests. Only the biggest companies serve breakfast for employees, and still, not for all of them, only directors' table and a bunch of selected executives. The biggest hotels may serve breakie for non-guests if You're intending to try a royalty breakfast and pay according for it (yes, I meant places Plaza-like, Hilton-like, You name it). Living in Brazil, You must be responsible for Your own breakie, although in all State chapitals cities downtowns it's possible to find some rare places which serve it. Don't rely on the rare event possibility of finding one of those preciousnessess.
During the 80's and 90's, many enterpreuners, aware of the fact European people use to have breakfast outside tried to offer this convenience in their stores but it failed redundantly. They Who cannot eat breakfast in home kept Their habit of quicly picking any packed stuff along the way from home to study or work and neglect the meals offered in the own stores where They stopped. How sad We'll never see urban people here munching choco croissants and sipping Their latte while try to deal with a newspaper, agenda, palmtop and screaming mobile to start one more exasperatingly urban beautiful day haha.
Not so much Europeans due to Their long-term baking tradition, Americans certainly find our breakfast menu short and triffle. We Don't use to have cake or waffles for habit, only when those are leftovers from the day before snacktime or dinner. We Don't eat pancakes or scrambled eggs even when there are leftovers when We wake up. Brazilians find disgusting to have eggs by the morning, so much as bacon or fried ham. Regular ham is ok in sandwiches. Wieners are also not an option, boiled or fried. As a rule We Don't eat anything fried by the morning. True enough fries are not healthy, but it's a national idea fries are "too heavy for morning time" no matter what. Other eating habit national ideas which are not exactly cientifical or superstitional based kept will be shown here later.
For short, Brazilian breakfast includes open or closed sandwiches made of a variety of breads, with butter or halvarina (cream or cream cheese are not rare) with cheese and cold meats as ham, smoked turkey slices or embutidos like mortadella or salami. To drink, cold chocolatey milk, and evidently the national beverage, cofee. During meals we drink coffee with a lot of milk and sugar in it, and plain black coffee to sip along the whole day specially when not in home. The coffee-milk proportion uses to be 50-50, many times 60 milk-40 coffee. Each region has its own very ways or naming the serve portions and We generally DON'T use the worldwide italian names. We also don't have the habit of drinking fruits juice on breakfast (most probably because our best fruits are for export so drinking juice is not commercially stimulated XD).
By the other hand, Asian people can be really in a pinch about having breakast specially soon after arriving, even more when They Don't speak Portuguese. There's no way to find places prepared to serve fish or boiled rice by the morning, even the Asian restaurants. All Asian-specific ingredients must be bought in specialized stores because our markets Don't offer them (for example edible seaweed).
P.S. Sugarcubes are extremely hard to find (and expensive) in Brazil. We use only granulated sugar.
During the 80's and 90's, many enterpreuners, aware of the fact European people use to have breakfast outside tried to offer this convenience in their stores but it failed redundantly. They Who cannot eat breakfast in home kept Their habit of quicly picking any packed stuff along the way from home to study or work and neglect the meals offered in the own stores where They stopped. How sad We'll never see urban people here munching choco croissants and sipping Their latte while try to deal with a newspaper, agenda, palmtop and screaming mobile to start one more exasperatingly urban beautiful day haha.
Not so much Europeans due to Their long-term baking tradition, Americans certainly find our breakfast menu short and triffle. We Don't use to have cake or waffles for habit, only when those are leftovers from the day before snacktime or dinner. We Don't eat pancakes or scrambled eggs even when there are leftovers when We wake up. Brazilians find disgusting to have eggs by the morning, so much as bacon or fried ham. Regular ham is ok in sandwiches. Wieners are also not an option, boiled or fried. As a rule We Don't eat anything fried by the morning. True enough fries are not healthy, but it's a national idea fries are "too heavy for morning time" no matter what. Other eating habit national ideas which are not exactly cientifical or superstitional based kept will be shown here later.
For short, Brazilian breakfast includes open or closed sandwiches made of a variety of breads, with butter or halvarina (cream or cream cheese are not rare) with cheese and cold meats as ham, smoked turkey slices or embutidos like mortadella or salami. To drink, cold chocolatey milk, and evidently the national beverage, cofee. During meals we drink coffee with a lot of milk and sugar in it, and plain black coffee to sip along the whole day specially when not in home. The coffee-milk proportion uses to be 50-50, many times 60 milk-40 coffee. Each region has its own very ways or naming the serve portions and We generally DON'T use the worldwide italian names. We also don't have the habit of drinking fruits juice on breakfast (most probably because our best fruits are for export so drinking juice is not commercially stimulated XD).
By the other hand, Asian people can be really in a pinch about having breakast specially soon after arriving, even more when They Don't speak Portuguese. There's no way to find places prepared to serve fish or boiled rice by the morning, even the Asian restaurants. All Asian-specific ingredients must be bought in specialized stores because our markets Don't offer them (for example edible seaweed).
P.S. Sugarcubes are extremely hard to find (and expensive) in Brazil. We use only granulated sugar.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Beginnig by the End
So concerned about what could be a "best possible" first topic to dwell upon here, I was almost forgetting the most simple features of human life. The basics. Last week I was called to attend a funeral ceremony. Perhaps it's better start with the spikey topics to not work them later when things are cheerful and progressing nicely. I apologize to all who expected something not so heavy, maybe of better taste. Writers blockage can be a trouble many a time.
The ceremony I took part happened on an Ecumenic Cemetery, or if, not held by any specific religious association. That's why I just Don't know if the deceased's family is religious at all. Certainly this subject will be seen here later on, just remarking how fine I found such arrengements inclusive to everyone. It means they dispose of chapels for one's last rites. Such as in the U.S.A. those rites are celebrated in a rent room of a funerary house, not necessarily inside a cemetery, not necessarily kept by a religious association. This way, the families can use the local burial services or not, and call a priest from their choice (or not, I suppose. Never witnessed personally a ceremony without officiants).
In early times, when Brazil was a colony, the dead were attended in their homes, and the corpse was deposited, inside the coffin, over the family dinner table. In many places around the world this custom is maintained, but nowadays here it's considered too morbid for the household and chapels are prefeerable. When this custom was kept, though, the dead was watched by all community during the first night after passing, so today the rite is still called a vigil even not happening by night time. During the vigil, evidently, a good deal of light candles was needed, and this also remains today, for we call a funeral "velório" (something like "lots of candles" candle = vela in portuguese).
In a Brazilian velório, no candles are used anymore, but electric torches imitating the head candles for the left and right sides of the corpse's head. The chairs around the chapel walls are destined to elders and must not be touched by young people, who keep standing all the time. Differently from many parts of the world including, as far as I know, the U.S.A., Europe and Japan, no meals are served during the velório, instead, the family brings a load of toasties, shortcakes, biscuits and stuff like those, individually packaged, and the chapel staff keeps a decorated basket to hold these items. Water, tea and coffee are also a courtesy. The attendants serve themlseves without asking permission and eat at the sidewalk by the doors. The room's curtains are kept solemnly closed all the time, and a plain cross or crucifix is a permanent decoration of the wall just upwards the coffin's head. Siding it are usually placed flower crowns, specifically designed for funerals. They have an unmistakable shape and are offered (it means, payed) by the closest family's members coworkers and school classmates. They are heavy and heavily smelly too, crafted with white and yellow chrysanths, flower here associated to death and funerals - and not for a very spiritual explanation. I'll have to research later why chrysanths are always used. White roses, lillies and carnations are usual too, but it's not a general opinion they resemble death.
Loud voice wailing mourn is naturally tolerated but not desirable, and scandalous mourners are hastily comforted with hugs and soft voice encouraging. In the colonial times, a large party of mourners was considered a symbol of status or esteem in he community. Today it's considered extreme bad taste to measure one's influence by how afluent are his funeral attendants. Wearing full mourn suit is also considered bad taste nowadays, for it's dreadful. Even Half-mourn is not necessary. People go to funerals wearing sport-casual including white linen in summertime, and only elder men keep wearing full suit costumes. Bringing rosaries or other religious apparatus are not demanded from the guests, either. A very last important observation is about... observe. The attendants must remain only a very brief time standing aside the coffin. Watching the corpse is very offensive because it's regarded as sick-minded; undesirable curiosity, not pious at all. The corpses are prepared in the funerary house, washed, dressed and made-up, and most of times the coffin is kept open. Touching the corpse is not forbidden and seen as a caress and respect sign, but in strict confidence. Disarranging the corpse would be seen as very hazardous, a total disaster. The act of touching a corpse is not anymore considered repugnant in our society.
The ceremony I took part happened on an Ecumenic Cemetery, or if, not held by any specific religious association. That's why I just Don't know if the deceased's family is religious at all. Certainly this subject will be seen here later on, just remarking how fine I found such arrengements inclusive to everyone. It means they dispose of chapels for one's last rites. Such as in the U.S.A. those rites are celebrated in a rent room of a funerary house, not necessarily inside a cemetery, not necessarily kept by a religious association. This way, the families can use the local burial services or not, and call a priest from their choice (or not, I suppose. Never witnessed personally a ceremony without officiants).
In early times, when Brazil was a colony, the dead were attended in their homes, and the corpse was deposited, inside the coffin, over the family dinner table. In many places around the world this custom is maintained, but nowadays here it's considered too morbid for the household and chapels are prefeerable. When this custom was kept, though, the dead was watched by all community during the first night after passing, so today the rite is still called a vigil even not happening by night time. During the vigil, evidently, a good deal of light candles was needed, and this also remains today, for we call a funeral "velório" (something like "lots of candles" candle = vela in portuguese).
In a Brazilian velório, no candles are used anymore, but electric torches imitating the head candles for the left and right sides of the corpse's head. The chairs around the chapel walls are destined to elders and must not be touched by young people, who keep standing all the time. Differently from many parts of the world including, as far as I know, the U.S.A., Europe and Japan, no meals are served during the velório, instead, the family brings a load of toasties, shortcakes, biscuits and stuff like those, individually packaged, and the chapel staff keeps a decorated basket to hold these items. Water, tea and coffee are also a courtesy. The attendants serve themlseves without asking permission and eat at the sidewalk by the doors. The room's curtains are kept solemnly closed all the time, and a plain cross or crucifix is a permanent decoration of the wall just upwards the coffin's head. Siding it are usually placed flower crowns, specifically designed for funerals. They have an unmistakable shape and are offered (it means, payed) by the closest family's members coworkers and school classmates. They are heavy and heavily smelly too, crafted with white and yellow chrysanths, flower here associated to death and funerals - and not for a very spiritual explanation. I'll have to research later why chrysanths are always used. White roses, lillies and carnations are usual too, but it's not a general opinion they resemble death.
Loud voice wailing mourn is naturally tolerated but not desirable, and scandalous mourners are hastily comforted with hugs and soft voice encouraging. In the colonial times, a large party of mourners was considered a symbol of status or esteem in he community. Today it's considered extreme bad taste to measure one's influence by how afluent are his funeral attendants. Wearing full mourn suit is also considered bad taste nowadays, for it's dreadful. Even Half-mourn is not necessary. People go to funerals wearing sport-casual including white linen in summertime, and only elder men keep wearing full suit costumes. Bringing rosaries or other religious apparatus are not demanded from the guests, either. A very last important observation is about... observe. The attendants must remain only a very brief time standing aside the coffin. Watching the corpse is very offensive because it's regarded as sick-minded; undesirable curiosity, not pious at all. The corpses are prepared in the funerary house, washed, dressed and made-up, and most of times the coffin is kept open. Touching the corpse is not forbidden and seen as a caress and respect sign, but in strict confidence. Disarranging the corpse would be seen as very hazardous, a total disaster. The act of touching a corpse is not anymore considered repugnant in our society.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Starting point
Considering I'm taking an English language and literature majoring in a Brazilian renewn colledge, I've noticed how broad is the online avalilable material for studying American, British and Oceania's people's customs and habits, but so few compilated contents on Brazil's culture, specially aiming to help foreigners who, for a reason or another, are living here or about to come soon. The published material is rare and hard to find, and most internet environments show those data spread randomly, wihtout any planned categorizing. That's why this space starts here. I hope it'd be useful or at least funny, as I also hope any readers correct me if I commit mistakes. It's not purpotedly a Brazilian Portuguese dictionary or grammar, or conversation guide, although probably those items will be discussed widely. Thank you very much and please enjoy your travel ^^
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