It was founded on 17 February 1947 by a group of lads from Amparo St and from Quatro Cantos, who went out onto the streets of the upper city with bare backs, wielding branches of a pitomba tree, a fruit tree native to Northeast Brazil whose bearing occurs in the first months of the year.

The game, which remained during Colonial Brazil and the Brazilian Empire, basically consisted of throwing water at others, using jars, bowls, syringes and squirts. This was complemented with a “bath” of flour, starch, mud or chalk.

With the objective of reviving old street Carnivals, helping to maintain tradition and counterbalancing the dominance of the Carnival balls of Recife social clubs, a group of friends, lead by businessman Enéas Freire, decided to create, in December 1977, the Clube de Máscaras O Galo da Madrugada.

The current Clube de Alegoria e Crítica O Homem da Meia-Noite, first appeared in the 1931 Carnival, as a form of dissent by the members of the Carnival troop Cariri de Olinda.