Green and Yellow Christmas (Natal Verde e Amarelo)
Merry Christmas!
Brazilian Christmas, without anything foreign,
December heat, without snow, without cold.
A Christmas that is all ours, with bells ringing
In the old churches of our Brazil.
Merry Christmas!
Don't serve turkey at dinner,
Serve good coffee, vatapá, caruru.
Family together, happy with life,
How good it is to celebrate Christmas!
"Oh, people, there is no..."
Such a beautiful Christmas, such a blue Christmas.
Moonlight from the backlands and the Southern Cross
Lighting up all of Brazil.
This year, I want to see Santa Claus in yellow and green,
coming late at night.
And in each slipper, he will leave
the pride of being Brazilian.
Music in an image
This song is more about decolonizing our Christmas than about nationalism. Nationalism is an unsophisticated form of collective narcissism.
As a child, I often sang this song in the choir. It brings me so many good memories.
An image that captures its spirit is this Santa outfit on the clothesline, surrounded by a tropical garden. I took this photo at Gramado, a city in southern Brazil with a strong German influence.
Some geneticists say that Brazil is probably the most mixed-race nation in the world. So, Brazilians may also have a bit of Santa’s blood. Who knows? That’s Brazil’s beauty: mixing different cultures in a melting pot and making it our own.
Feliz Natal! Feliz Navidad! Frohe Weihnachten! Buon Natale! Joyeux Noël! Tupãra’y’ára rory! (guarani indigenous language)
Merry Christmas, dear readers!
Notes
This video is the only traditional samba version I could find of the Green and Yellow Christmas song. The sound could be better, and the Christmas decorations could be decolonized, but the guy is having so much fun singing this song that it is the epitome of the Brazilian spirit!
Vatapá is an Afro-Brazilian food with a creamy consistency, spicy seasonings and shrimp. Caruru is an okra stew. Both are popular dishes in Brazilian cuisine.
“Oh, people, there is no…” is an excerpt from a traditional Brazilian song about the beauty of the moonlight in our backlands.
Translating is transcreating. I translated not word for word but the poetic meaning of the music, being faithful to the author’s probable intention. If you have suggestions for improvement, please get in touch by clicking here.
Images: Tropical Beach (Pexels), Santa’s clothes (Ana Cecilia Rocha Veiga).
