What is Folklore? Folklore is synonymous with popular culture, where it unites the most varied customs, mythologies and beliefs.
Usually, passed from generation to generation, here in Brazil, all the festivals of the communities that will never be forgotten are the reason for so much pride for the people.
With fictitious characteristics and characters, of fights and glories, that eternalize the country's warriors, often transforming a villain into a good guy, sad events into heroic facts. In other words, creating captivating caricatures in the imagination.
We are left with the memories and flavors of the original and traditional festivals of the Folklore Brazilian.
However, those that memory insists on erasing are remembered by our grandparents and parents and passionate about the place they live.
The internet came to everyone's aid, but nothing comparable to listening to a good old story full of creativity and magic.
O folklore it is more than a repetition of the same culture or tale, it is synonymous with love for history, it is the living essence of those who have passed through each floor.
It's the fact that he never dies or the mischief of characters immortalized in fantasies that create allusions to the magical plot of events, that no one can prove if they existed, but that left an incredible reality in the imagination of each citizen.
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For each citizen, the indescribable happiness of renewing vows in the imagination translates the different meanings that the word folklore it has, from the English “folk” which means people and from “lore” which means knowledge.
It defines us as “people's knowledge”, that is, everything that describes a people over the generations, whether it is true with facts that prove it, or not, just legends that strengthen the region's culture.
Be it in a city, state or even countries, for example, the international and folk culture of the people of Rio Grande do Sul with a tonic accent on a.
People who live in three countries, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, bring a rich culture full of Folklore with legends that come from the frontiers and are divided into stories that portray life in the countryside.
Folklore it is more than a legend, but a living source of each constructed feeling. This culture occupies a huge space in South America.
Proof of this is one of the most solidified folklores on the three borders, that of Negrinho do pastoreio. Legend created at the end of the 19th century in the countries where the people of Rio Grande do Sul live.
There are many authors reporting in all three countries. In southern Brazil, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, one of the versions was written by João Simões Lopes Neto.
That tells the story that a slave of the time, a young boy, without father or mother, had no name, and then nicknamed “Negrinho”, always said that his godmother was the Virgin Mary.
He was punished several times throughout the story, but in a final account of the tale, he slept and lost his shepherding, in which he was responsible.
To pay for the mistake he made, he was cruelly thrown into an anthill, so the ants could eat him.
After a few days of what happened, the rancher (who is like a head of the farm) saw him on the anthill removing the last ants, without any marks on his skin.
Beside him was the Virgin Mary, his godmother. Thus leaving the message to everyone that he already dwelt in heaven!
Popular culture then created the image that he became a protector of the pampas saints.
This is the example of folklore who lives not only in a community, but who has broken the boundaries of countries in various literatures such as the writer Argentine Juan Ambrosetti in 1917 and Uruguayan Javier Freyre in 1890, thus following the strong and eternal history of this people from Rio Grande do Sul.
There are no facts to prove that this story is really true, but it is a clear example of the meaning of folklore, that crosses generations leaving the glow of hope and protection for the men who live in the countryside.
UNESCO (United Nations) for education, science and culture understands that the term folklore it is synonymous with popular culture, which is extremely important to perpetuate all kinds of historical feelings, be they legend or true.
O folklore is responsible for creating the profile of a community, strengthening characteristics that establish intellectual property.
Thus, we can explain why Portuguese or Spanish speaking countries have so many ramifications, such as in their own vocabulary, slang and accents.
It is also a strong influencer of local clothing, cuisine and architecture, such as the Germanic and Italian peoples who brought the strong European culture with their families.
It is easy to see in cities in the interior of large metropolises, the buildings refer to the ancients folklores. Food even becomes commerce so that it is not a follower of culture.
thus doing the folklore be also very important for the economy of peoples. We can compare with technology that influences different niches within the same society.
The main concept of folklore it is living cultural diversity. a people without folklore it is a people without an identity, which can easily be erased from history.
But the magic of this culture is of such strength that even in dictatorships like China it exists, with dragons in the New Year's festivities.
The Chinese people believe that this mythological creature existed and by seeing him it was possible to obtain wisdom, strength, power, protection and wealth.
O folklore Oriental has become of such proportion that we easily see today, in today's society, many using images of dragons, buddhas, carps, in ornaments, or tattooed on their bodies, believing, based on folklore, who received the blessings deposited there.
It is the popular culture that the people count on and that advances across borders and seas.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Grimm brothers who were German, were linguists, poets and writers and dedicated themselves to the records of various children's fables, ended up acquiring great worldwide fame.
However, they discovered that there is something beyond stories, a popular feeling that was not explained in traditional literatures, many unfounded stories hovered over society.
So they defined that this popular culture was very important, they discovered several folklores, reporting on material that has been perpetuated in history.
They defined, for example, Little Red Riding Hood (a legitimately German story, with no author registration), even though it exists in several cultures, it is a folklore.
This intense dedication to the study of traditional poetry made them discover that there was a popular culture different from elite cultures.
Cultures were very extensive and encompassed music, arts, poetry, religions.
All these events began to be studied in other countries, as the news of the cultural novelty, which at the time began to be called “popular antiquities” and attracted scholars to these new discoveries.
In 1846 archaeologist Ambrose Merton defined the word folklore.
The large proportions of study in society now, whether elite or not, allowed references to these parties, traditions customs, beliefs, stories and facts that by the way sometimes even considered impossible to have existed to be calls of folklore.
After a while all sorts of new culture discovered, or told by ancients, started to be called that. Even stories not written, but spoken by the population.
O folklore it even assumed a synonym for non-truth, nonsense, in the daily lives of citizens, but the strong etymology of the word today is related to histories of the population's cultures.
The passage of time has brought us considerable and very important technological advances and many of these stories can and were demystified, but the strength of a culture does not lose space and continue to be lit in the sentiments of societies.
With several good events in the 19th century, the mystical belief that the modern world could extinguish folk festivals was created.
Factor that caused a stir for the study and deepening of all types in the Folklore.
Luckily today, the culture has solidified even more and is still alive today.
In Brazil, in the middle of the same century, precursors such as Celso de Magalhães and Sílvio Romero were prominent in folklore studies.
UNESCO together with the national commission of folklore created the letter of Brazilian folklore established in 1951, in rio de janeiro, it considers the folklore essential in education, which creates harmony for the history of a people.
O folklore is inserted in universities in the field of social sciences.
There is a concern in the continuity of studies related to culture, as digital media demand more quality in materials, obviously the dissemination is more powerful than any time.
But access to information and lack of it may frustrate those who seek the segment of stories, because many they are in the popular saying and in the colloquial conversations of small villages that do not have access to digital banks existing.
With the advent of the internet, the dissemination of cultures may gain strength, small groups seek this expansion with parties that portray our culture such as the boi bumba party, farroupilha party, carnivals of road.
We can cite many legends nowadays such as Saci Pererê, headless mule, Negrinho do pastoreio, curupira, werewolf, flying saucers, Boto, Boitatá, Iara.
As well as folk games: Hide and seek, three marias, marbles, tops, Pega-Pega and finally some songs; The frog doesn't wash his foot, I threw the stick at the cat, Ciranda-cirandinha.
The culture of Brazil and the world is rich and beautiful and must always be registered so that it stays alive, feeding the imagination of new generations.
Because feeding the imagination is teaching to dream, a citizen without dreams is a citizen with no direction to go on with life”.
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