The Tradition of Chimarrão. Early morning on the Pampas of southern Brasil, the Gaucho (Brazilian cowboy) gets up, yawns and stretches… After donning his bombachas (typical Brazilian cowboy pants), he puts on his slippers and walks out to a little shed behind his house. Bringing a handful of firewood from the shed into the rustic kitchen, he fans the coals left from yesterdays cooking until a roaring fire is going in the stove. He then puts a kettle of water on to heat and prepares his gourd with Yerba Mate, carefully following the traditional steps established by his indigenous ancestors. When the water starts "singing", as they put it, he fills his gourd with hot water.

Walking out to the porch, he sits on a bench, setting the kettle beside him and meditatively sips the infusion through the silver straw, gazing out over the plains toward the sunrise. When the kettle has emptied he interrupts his meditation and prepares breakfast for his family, leaving wood for the stove. He then dons his boots, saddles his horse, and rides out to drive the cattle to the pastures. When noon comes he gathers with all the other men under the shade of a tree. There they prepare a fire to roast a "churrasco" (A Gaucho BBQ), and pass the gourd from hand to hand in the circle enjoying the fellowship as they roast their meal. Only when the sun lowers in the sky and the midday heat dispels do they ride off to work their rice fields, preparing for harvest.

Dating back to the time of the Indians, the custom of drinking mate in a gourd has come to symbolize a lot for the peoples of southern Brazil. A Chimarrão circle became the culmination of tradition, uniting people of every race, belief, skin color and social class around a fire creating a common ground for all. This creates an environment of respect, uniting couples, bonding generations and solidifying the family nucleus. It brings people to a sense of community, enduring friendships, inspiring the sense of comfort as the gourd circles around. It maintains the feeling of affection and companionship and becomes a way of increasing communication, which is the essence of unity. Chimarrão is a spontaneous expression of the survival of healthy traditions, many of which are fading today.