(First presented at Bendigo Chamber Choir's Christmas Pudding concert, 2005)
Recently I have become very interested in Brasil.
I thought that I’d bring in some southern hemisphere solidarity and let you know what is happening over there.
From what I hear, there are many things the same. Brasilians are very sociable, and so Christmas gatherings are probably larger with more extended family. Like us they tend to have a roast meal and other winter food, even though it is summer.
The southernmost large city in Brasil is level with Coffs Harbour, although it goes further south and a small sliver of land is level with Newcastle. Brasilians have many wonderful things, but they do not have snow and they find this frustrating.
In spite of hankering after snow at its proper time, they are just as irritated with winter Christmas symbols as we are.
In the north east, making elaborate nativity scenes (presepios) is a very important activity. At midnight, churchgoers attend Missa do Galo, or Rooster Mass, since it finishes very early in the morning.
Santa Claus (Papai Noel) has worse problems in Brasil than here. That suit is not much fun in Rio, which is near the Tropic of Capricorn. When he gets to the Amazon and the Equator, it is even less fun. I have heard that he is sometimes lucky enough to have a silk outfit for his Brasilian duties.
In the north, some place names are very Christmassy. The city at the mouth of the Amazon is Belem, or Bethlehem. At the eastern tip of the country is a city called Natal or Christmas.
Natal is the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, an area close to the Equator that has beautiful beaches with high sand dunes and extreme poverty.In the slums of Natal, young children go naked, as they have nothing to wear. There is no water supply or sewerage system. There is little food and a lot of disease and ignorance.
One of my Brasilian friends has told me about her relatives, Manoel and Nilza Lopes, who are business people living in Natal.
After moving there many years ago they wanted to help people less fortunate than themselves, and started to work with aged people, prisoners and lepers.
Manoel had the idea of a bigger enterprise. They created the “Armazem da Caridade” the Warehouse of Charity. Their spiritual beliefs are sympathetic with Christianity, but not Christian in an orthodox sense. They wanted an ecumenical action, but, sadly they found little cooperation from the churches. Eventually they teamed up with the Freemasons for the project.
Together they got a piece of land from the government and built a huge hangar of 1200 square meters for their work. It opened in 1995.
In a variety of campaigns they gather donations and distribute them among the severely disadvantaged. Their rules say that they can only receive contributions of goods and services from the community, not money, and that no director may be in politics.
In 1998 there was a terrible dry season, and they took trucks with food to several cities in the interior of the state. In 2000 and 2004 there were floods, and their services were again needed more than usual.
For the last 5 years they have had an annual project called Christmas with Dignity. It is a Christmas celebration for hundreds of very poor families from slums in the city of Natal. They select a community and gather information about each person in each family. This year they are inviting 221 families for Christmas. The guest list has 1080 names on it. Some years there have been 1500.
They gather support from businesses large and small and also from the Army. The contributors and volunteers provide transport, tables, chairs, food, drinks and entertainment. Petrobas, for example, is Brasil’s largest oil company. As well as whatever goods and services they are contributing, the Petrobas Choir has been part of the entertainment program.
The guests are generally so poor that in their entire life they never attended a Christmas dinner or other celebration. Buses collect them from their homes. A team of about 180 volunteers receive them, show them to their places and serve dinner. When the party is over the guests receive clothes, toys and packages of food, before returning home on the buses.
So there is a little slice of Christmas in Brasil for you, and a Christmas greeting: Feliz Natal!