January 1st is the day declared by the Brazilian Constitution to have the Presidential Inauguration. This happens every four years, and happens to fall on one of the most celebrated of the Brazilian holidays, but that's how it is here.
This year was a particularly significant day since the person being sworn into office would be Brazil's first woman president, Dilma Rousseff. It was a hotly contested campaign, and she was the former chief of staff for Brazil's most popular president ever, Lula da Silva. Due to the importance of this day, the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, was one of the several hundred foreign dignitaries that came to congratulate President Dilma and participate in the ceremonies.
We decided that this would probably be a once in a lifetime event for our children, so we made our way down to the Esplanada to partcipate in a few of the many activities and concerts that had been set up for this special day. Even the Brazilian Communist party was celebrating, as noted by the balloons and flags that lined the route to the government buildings where the inauguration would take place. The color red is the color of the PT, the worker's party, that won the election.
On the fields across from the congressional buildings, there were several pavilions and tents set up, each representing one of the regions of the Brazil. Also, there were large signs with pictures and stories about historically significant Brazilian women.
I didn't a chance to do much more than bring my family to the sites since I had to get back to the embassy to join with the rest of the embassy team that was meeting Secretary Clinton at the the airport. I'll write a little bit more about that later.
The first place we stopped was the children's pavilion, and at that time a musical group was performing music in support of a puppet show. I have no idea what the puppet show was about, but it reminded me of the Punch and Judy puppets.
After I returned to the embassy, my family went to a couple of the other pavilions to see some of the other demonstrations and shows. The group in this photo were representing an indigenous tribe from the Amazon. As they sang, they invited members of the audience to join with them as they moved rhythmically in a circle. The older woman doing the singing also did some improvisational songs that praised the new Brazilian president.
My family's favorite show was by a group of Ukrainian-Brazilian dancers from the south of Brazil. We knew that Brazil is a population made of people from all over the world, but seeing a Ukrainian folk dancing helped to sink in the message. This community has made it a distinct goal to try and preserve traditions from their homeland, and it really reminded me of the cultural celebrations that we have in Cleveland, which is another community made of cultures from around the world.
The most exciting moment of the outing came when my youngest son got separated from the rest of the family. As they were moving from one pavilion to another, it started to rain very hard, and so everyone moved under the closest tent. During this mass movement, my wife noticed that our son was no longer with them, so she told the rest of the kids to stay put while she hunted for him. She found a nearby police officer and used her Portuguese to describe the missing kid: short blonde hair wearing blue Crocs with socks. (Definitely not similar to any of the Brazilian kids that day. The socks were the giveaway feature.) Anyway, they returned to the pavilion my family had previously visited and our boy was still there. I think he might have just been noticing that he was not with the family. Fortunately, everyone was very helpful in helping us to get our boy back.
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