Bumba Meu Boi
30 June 2026 · movable holiday — The drums beat – the bull springs to life and dances among the stars!
Bumba Meu Boi is a Brazilian folk theatre of songs, music and dance. Its core is the story of a bull that “dies” and is then miraculously revived. According to the tale, a plantation worker kills his master's favourite bull to satisfy the craving of his pregnant wife, and in the end the animal is brought back to life and everyone celebrates. The tradition is associated above all with northeastern Brazil, especially Maranhão, where it peaks during the June festivities of saints such as St John and St Peter, around the end of the month. Singers, percussion and characters in lavish costumes take part, while the bull itself is a frame covered in embroidered velvet and sequins. Regions have their own styles, called “sotaques” (accents). In 2019 the Bumba-meu-boi culture of Maranhão was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The festival follows the June calendar of saints, so it falls near the June solstice, which marks the start of summer in the northern hemisphere and the start of winter in the southern hemisphere, where most of Brazil lies.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver star figure made of luminous dots and thin connecting lines, like a constellation, shaped as a dancing bull with a lifted head and a flowing cape of tiny glittering points
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