GUARAQUEÇABA – THE HOUSE THAT WALKED

Since 1545, the year when the Portuguese arrived in the territory named by the indigenous people as “Guaraqueçaba”, there was a history among the Carijó Indians that moved close to the beach during high tides. It was recorded by Austrian botanist Alfons Staden in his travel journals to the colonial territory of Brazil. No details of the story are clear, since, concerned with the catechization of the indigenous people, the Portuguese caused their culture to fall into ostracism and the story to become legend. The legend, however, regained strength among local residents and descendants of the ancient Carijó Indians in the mid-20th century when, on the occasion of the Widening of the Varadouro Channel, some riverside families had to leave their small wooden houses. They say that one of them, precisely the one that was closest to the water, would have moved away from the bank before the start of works on the canal. As a result, the house did not need to be demolished, however, no one ever lived there again. Currently, during the carnival period, it is customary for children in the city to make masks to play scare, and many of these masks illustrate the house where they walked.