Not a scarecrow

At the risk of republishing a photo (as you can see it is from 2006) that you have already seen, meet Judas.  Part of the Easter tradition here is to blow up the biblical betrayer of Jesus.  You can see these cute little guys for sale at the side of the road, full of fireworks (have you noticed that our holidays almost always include some fireworks?).  You  have a big Easter party with your extended family, read a poem about what Judas leaves each person (he only leaves unpleasant things and is definitely written to evoke a laugh or two), and then light that sucker on fire.  It's kind of gruesome on many levels, not the least of which is the risk he will explode on someone and blow off a few fingers.  As I'm pretty sure I wrote a post about this somewhere several years ago and I have several other things on my list today, I won't go into too much detail.  This isn't your fuzzy bunny Easter down here - we don't look for baskets with chocolate bunnies, wear pretty spring dresses, or have quiet family dinners; we give our kids a large chocolate egg (no searching involved), let them eat it and a bunch of other crap, run around like while animals, and then blow up a biblical figure made of fireworks.  At least it's a good time. 

A 40 mile traffic jam

São João is a big holiday here in the northeast. The basic deal is that everyone tries to leave the city and drive to some tiny town in the interior, find someone's floor to sleep on, and goes to the public square to dance to Forró all night. It's one of my favorite holidays here, maybe because it's so focused on being in the country and just dancing - reminds me of home and going contra dancing. The holiday falls on the 24th of every June, but the major party is on the 23rd. This year the 24th is a Tuesday, meaning it was a 4 day weekend for anyone going out of town, and the public responded quickly.

This is a lame picture of my television of a live shot of BR324 in the BrasilGas sector, near Pirajá. This traffic jam went for over 80 KM, traffic stopped or moving slowly, everyone trying to get the heck away from the city. Having only 2 major highways to get you out, not at all surprising result.

See the number of people clustered at the non-bus station stop? And at the moment a good friend of mine visiting is out of town (Chapada) and will try to return on the afternoon of the 24th to catch an extremely early plane on the morning of the 25th - I hope she actually gets here in time....