“A folia dos vagalumes” (The revelry of the fireflies) is an illustrated book for children aged 10 to 12 about Carnival festivities from the state of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, and its masquerade characters. The plot of the book focuses on a dad and a son. Both are part of the Bate-Bola traditions, typical from Rio's street carnival celebrations. Filled with poetry and History, “A folia dos vagalumes” is a dreamlike journey through Rio de Janeiro's Carnival celebrations. Throughout the book, the protagonists are introduced to several masked characters and are invited to reflect on the need to maintain the roots of Carnival traditions and their legacy. The book was written and illustrated by Camilla Serrão and was created as part of her Master's thesis titled Carnival masquerades: a study on the construction of a procedural and collaborative memoir archive. The research was developed between 2019 and 2021 in PUC-Rio's Graduate Program in Design. The work has been supported by Brazil's National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).
"A folia dos vagalumes" seeks to celebrate the diversity of Rio de Janeiro's Carnival festivities. The creative dialogue with teenagers, with their parents and with local cultural producers was able to stimulate the dissemination of the memory and the legacy of these Carnival traditions. The development of the book also showed the power that illustrated fiction has in bringing research closer to new audiences, such as young readers.
The book was created as a way of creatively spreading masquerade traditions that are now hardly ever found in contemporary carnival celebrations in Rio de Janeiro. Overall, 18 masked characters are portrayed. The association between these masquerades and fireflies is metaphorical: as they sing, dance and party, their shimmer is capable of lighting up with delicacy and poetry the memory of Carnival, maintaining it alive. The development of "A folia dos vagalumes" was also impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and by all the uncertainties towards the Carnival celebrations in 2021.