Traditional June festivals celebrate bountiful harvests in Brazil

“The Festa Junina is a celebration deeply rooted in Brazilian culture, with food as a key element of identity,” says historian Morelli Abrahão, of the State University of Campinas (Unicamp). She notes that a number of such parties are no longer associated with the saints from the Catholic Church, but have become a symbol of collective memory. The typical dishes represent this collective memory of our people,” Abrahão said.