🐈🇧🇷💕Lara 💕🐈🇧🇷

It's a wrap everyone !

2 de Fevereiro - Dia de Yemanjá

Yemoja (known as Yemanjá in Brazil) is the Yoruba goddess of the oceans, and represents the essence of motherhood. In Brazil, her day is celebrated on February 2nd.

The Cuca [Brazilian folktales]

Every culture has at least some variation on the classic ‘bogeyman’ story: a hideous monster would kidnap naughty or misbehaving children. These tales were told to kids to persuade them from misbehaving, or to stop them from whatever their parents want them to stop doing.

In Brazil, this role is given to ‘Cuca’, a humanoid monster with a crocodilian head and long blond hair. She is often called a witch and still makes common appearances in Brazilian lullabies. Her physical characteristics aren’t set in stone though, and vary between authors and stories. Sometimes she is a shapeless, incorporeal being. Another version turns Cuca into a hideous old humpbacked woman with long, white hair.

Monteiro Lobato – a Brazilian author of children’s books - is largely responsible for the current, most popular version of the character. This Cuca is a cave-dwelling monster with the hideous head of an alligator and hands that end in hawk-like talons. She was over 3 thousand years old and was almost always awake, only needing 1 night’s sleep every 7 years. As is common with bogeymen characters, she is known to kidnap and devour children, specifically those who are awake at night and refuse to sleep.

In the 1977 adaptation “O Sítio do Picapau Amarelo”, the Cuca was characterized by her long blond hair, and this cemented the hairstyle as one of Cuca’s usual traits.

The story of Cuca might actually be influenced by much older myths and bogeymen. In medieval Iberian folklore, a monster named “Coca” was represented in processions as a personification of the devil. Coca, in turn, might have evolved from an ancient Roman tradition to bring offerings to the goddess Juno so that she would bless the people with a good harvest.

Much later, a monster named Coca appeared in Spanish festivities in which the creature was represented by cardboard, dragon-like monster with a long tail and wings. It has cricket-like legs and usually stands around 5m tall. Eventually, in Portugal, a new version of the Coca evolved. In the ‘Procissão dos Passos’ procession, children were scared by an actor dressed in a tunic with a mask with no facial features except for two eye holes. This scarecrow-like character was called the Coca.

I won’t be going into detail about these different monsters and traditions, as the link between them isn’t exactly proven and is still subject to discussion. It is, however, safe to say that the Cuca monster is influenced by many older traditions before eventually becoming the crocodile-headed witch that Brazilian people are now familiar with.

https://pin.it/2Yey13hkP

Anhangá X Tupã, por Natalie Duarte

Minha interpretação da primeira batalha entre Anhangá e Tupã, os deuses mais poderosos da mitologia brasileira. Tupã, o deus do trovão, venceu a batalha e mandou Anhangá para o submundo.

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Anhangá X Tupã, by Natalie Duarte

Alamoa

Conta a Lenda que Alamoa  ou dama branca é  a aparição de uma mulher branca, muito bonita, loura  e que anda nua, e que aparece dançando na praia iluminada pelos relâmpagos de tempestade próxima. Dizem que ela atrai os pescadores ou caminhantes que voltam tarde e depois se transforma em um esqueleto, endoidecendo o namorado que a seguiu. Aparece também como uma luz ofuscante, multicor, a perseguir quem foge dela. Sua residência é o Pico, elevação rochosa de 321 metros na ilha de Fernando de Noronha.

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Anhangá X Tupã, por Natalie Duarte

Minha interpretação da primeira batalha entre Anhangá e Tupã, os deuses mais poderosos da mitologia brasileira. Tupã, o deus do trovão, venceu a batalha e mandou Anhangá para o submundo.

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Anhangá X Tupã, by Natalie Duarte