Anniversary of São Paulo: traditional Bolo do Bixiga is canceled this year after the death of the organizer

An event that usually attracts a crowd to the center of São Paulo every January 25th will not take place this Wednesday, when the capital's 469th anniversary is celebrated, due to the death of one of the organizers of the tradition, Walter Taverna.

The celebration of the anniversary of the capital of São Paulo will be different this year: the traditional Bolo do Bixiga , which grows one meter in length every year to match the age of São Paulo and attracts a crowd to the central region of the city, will not be held.

According to Solang Taverna, one of the organizers of the event, the cancellation of the festivities is due to the death of her father, Walter Taverna, an iconic figure in the Bixiga neighborhood and one of those responsible for the tradition , in May last year. At the age of 88, he died of pneumonia.

This is the city's first anniversary after his death. "We are still in a period of mourning," said the daughter.

It is still not possible to say whether the subway cake tradition has come to an end or will happen again in the coming years. Solang says that the organizers still haven't stopped to think about it and that, when the conditions are right, they will talk to the partners (who help financially) and with society, to find out if it is something that people value and want to keep, since holding the event it is laborious and costly.

Bixiga's Cake

The history of Bolo do Bixiga began in 1986, when São Paulo completed 432 years. Idealized by Armando Puglisi, the party was initially held by the neighborhood community and each resident brought a cake.

In 1995, after the death of 'Armandinho do Bixiga', Walter Taverna took over the organization of the event, starting the tradition of the meter cake, with each meter of cake symbolizing one year of the age of São Paulo.

The tradition was interrupted in 2008 after a TV program encouraged a cake fight between children. The action harmed the image of the event, which lost sponsorships, and served only pieces of industrialized cakes to the public – in an effort by the residents and traders of Bixiga – for seven years.

In 2015, the "Festa do Bolo do Bixiga" was included in the official calendar of the city of São Paulo.

In 2021, on São Paulo's first anniversary after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the celebration gained a virtual version to avoid agglomerations. In place of the cake, residents and party goers gathered 467 videos and photos of people wishing congratulations to the capital of São Paulo, which completed that age.

In the last year, the celebrations were replaced by donations to families in situations of social vulnerability.

"Our last edition was extremely significant, because the cake was deconstructed. All the food that made up the cake, we transformed it into basic baskets and donated it to needy communities", said Solang, the heiress of the tradition.