Popular festivities in Brazil
- 1st January: New Year, beginning of the civil year.
- February-March: Carnaval. Popular festival that precedes lent, celebrated annually on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Although not a national holiday, in some states they do not work on the Monday before the festival, forming the four days of Carnaval.
- March-April: Good Friday. Christian celebration commemorating Christ’s death.
- 21st April: Tiradentes. Homage to the martyr of the Miner Conspiracy.
- 1st May: Day of work. Homage to all workers.
- May-June: Corpus Christi. Celebration of the Catholic Church in which the Eucharist sacrament is commemorated. It is celebrated 60 days after Easter Sunday.
- 7th September: Independence day. Proclamation of independence from the Portuguese empire.
- 12th October: Day of Our Lady of Aparecida. Celebration of the patron saint of Brazil.
- 2nd November: Day of the dead. Day in memory of the dead.
- 15th November: Proclamation of the Republic. Anniversary of the transformation of the empire into a republic.
- 25th December: Christmas. Traditional Christmas celebration.
Brazilian gastronomy
Brazilian cuisine varies a lot depending on each region, given that it reflects the diversity of the native populations and immigrants. This has defined a national gastronomy marked by the preservation of these regional differences.
Gastronomy in Northern Brazil
The gastronomy of northern Brazil is characterized by a strong indigenous influence, highlighting dishes such as pirarucu de casaca, açaí, pato no tucupi and maniçoba. Also consumed is feijoada, a hearty dish based on black beans and pork, accompanied by rice, farofa, fried banana and chili.
Northeastern gastronomy
Typical dishes from this Brazilian region include vatapá, moqueca with seafood and palm oil, and acarajé, a bean dumpling with fried onion and seafood. Also common are farofa, paçoca, canjica, pamonha, carne-de-sol, buchada de bode, queso coalho and rapadura.
Pequi, centre-eastern dish
Pequi is very popular in the cuisine of the state of Goiás and is usually served with rice, providing a strong and characteristic flavor. In this region, meat and fish dishes predominate and are central menu items, reflecting the agricultural influence and culinary traditions of central Brazil.
Southeastern gastronomy
The gastronomy of southeastern Brazil is rich and diverse, with a strong influence of rural and mining cuisine. Many of these dishes are accompanied by fried bananas, creating a combination of sweet and savory flavors very characteristic of the region.
Southern dishes
In southern Brazil, churrasco is traditional in Rio Grande do Sul, with grilled meat. Caipirinha, made with cachaça, sugar, lemon juice and ice, is the national drink par excellence. Exotic fruit smoothies are also popular in the region.
Transport in Brazil
There are close to four thousand airports and airfields in Brazil. It is the country with the second largest number of airports in the world, only behind the US. The Aeropuerto Internacional de Guarulhos, in the Metropolitan region of São Paulo, is the biggest airport and most important at international level. A large part of its activity is due to goods traffic and Brazilian passengers as well as the fact that the airport connects São Paulo to practically all the large cities in the world. Brazil has 34 international airports and 2464 regional airports.
Furthermore, Brazil has an extensive rail network, spanning 28.857 km, the 10th largest in the world. The Brazilian government is currently trying to incentivize the use of this means of transport; an example is the high speed train project between Rio and São Paulo, a bullet train that will link the two main metropolises in the country. There are 37 important ports in Brazil, of which the largest is Puerto de Santos. The Brazilian river network is one of the largest in the world, with 50,000km of rivers apt for use by boats.
Sport in Brazil
Football is the most popular sport in Brazil. The national football team has won the FIFA world cup on 5 occasions. Volleyball, futsal, basketball, skating, motor racing and martial arts such as Capoeira, recognised as the national martial art, are also very popular in the country.
Within martial arts Brazilians have developed things like capoeira, vale-tudo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. In motor racing, 3 Brazilian drivers have won the formula 1 world championship a combined number of 8 times: Emerson Fittipaldi in 1972 and 1974; Nelson Piquet in 1981, 1983 and 1987 and Ayrton Senna in 1988, 1990 and 1991.
Brazil has organised a number of large-scale sporting events. São Paulo hosted the Panamerican games in 1963 and Rio de Janeiro hosted the 2007 games. Furthermore, the country was chosen to host the Olympic games in 2016, which took place in Rio de Janeiro.