The June Parties or Festas Juninas take place every year during the month of June and are dedicated to celebrating the nativity of Catholic saints—Saint Anthony (June 13), Saint John the Baptist (June 24), and Saint Peter (June 29). Interestingly, these parties originally come from European Midsummer celebrations. These festivities are so popular in Rio that sometimes they go on even into July.
The parties are held in giant tents with straw roofs. The celebrations include large bonfires, local food, country music, costumes, dancing, drinking, and even fireworks. Men usually wear straw hats and peasant clothes, while women paint freckles and gap teeth and wear checkered dresses. The traditional dance of the June Parties is quadrilha, a dance where couples whirl around in a mock peasant wedding—casamento caipira—a symbol of fertility of the land and a staple of the Festas Juninas.
