"There is coconut candy and peteca
Let the child play
Today is a day of celebration
The ibejada comes to bless."
— Song for the erês
Streets come alive when they belong to the erês and die when they belong to cars. I dream of a project that I intend to put into practice when time allows: writing a manual of the fabulous rules of hopscotch, carniça, button football, preguinho, capture the flag, ring-around-the-rosy, lenço-atrás, slope soccer, dodgeball, and the variations of marbles. The title is already set: "The Loving Ecology of Street Games."
Someone might ask whether children's games have a place in a debate on culture. My immediate response is: of course they do. Culture is not restricted to events, nor is it a *terreiro* where only adults dance. Culture is the way a group creates or re-elaborates ways of life and establishes meaning for the reality that surrounds them: the ways of speaking, dressing, eating, praying, punishing, killing, being born, burying the dead, crying, celebrating, growing old, dancing, keeping silent, shouting, and playing.
