Recently, through conversations with my friends, I discovered a piece of Brazilian culture or society that was new to me. Similar to the Italian lottery, there is a game in Brazil called Jogo de Bicho (or Animal Game). It is a type of gambling and is illegal in Brazil. The game consists of numbers from 1-24 which each correspond to an animal. For example, 1 is the Ostrich, 2 is an Eagle, 3 is a Donkey, and so on.
The reason I heard about it was because my friend was telling me about how the number 24 is generally avoided in Brazil, almost to painstaking lengths, because the animal it corresponds with in Jogo de Bicho is the deer (veado). In Brazil, veado is pejorative slang for homosexuality. An already existing slang term exists, viado, and because they are pronounced almost the same, the deer is associated with gay men. In society, many people will take lengths to either avoid or incorporate that number. Politicians wanting to appeal to the LGBTQ crowd will use it in the telephone number for their campaign, while others will make sure it does not appear in their phone number. In the Brazilian Senate, out of 81 senators, the cabinet 24 does not exist. Senators and other government officials are issued special license plates, and there is no plate with 24 on it. Sports players will often avoid that jersey number as well, and after Kobe Bryant’s death (number 24 for the Lakers), Brazil saw a large response of anti-homophobia protests. It came up in my own conversations as a friend sent a picture of his birthday cake. He was turning 24, and instead of putting the numbers 2 and 4, his family had put 23 mais um, or 23 plus one.
The betting can be superstitious, and various connotations evolved with different animals. Seeing different animals or symbols in one’s dreams can be taken as a sign to bet on that number, but perhaps the most interesting one is the elephant. It is said to be associated with death, so any accident or loss of life when a multiple of the elephant’s numbers appear, the bankers and operators see a heavy flow of bets on that number. However, if too many people bet on one number, it is removed from the lottery to prevent the bookies from bankrupting and having to draw on their personal funds to repay.
Other impacts of the animals from Jogo de bicho are found in various football (or soccer) clubs. One called Treze Futebol Clube, or Football Club Thirteen, have a rooster as their mascot because the rooster is the animal for 13 in Jogo de bicho.
Comments
Sabrina, thank you for sharing about Jogo de Bicho and its relationship with Brazilian culture. I didn't realize that a betting game could say so much about sentiments towards the LGBTQ community and be both a political and activist tool. You did a great job illustrating specific examples of the deep culture values.