New Year in Brazil: the tradition of celebrating

Incredibly cheerful, cheerful and sociable Brazilians are very fond of the holidays and are able to celebrate them with pleasure and swing. So, unlike Christmas, held in the circle of family and friends, the New Year in Brazil tradition is prescribed to meet outside the home, in a noisy company of friends. On the eve of this fun holiday bright and colorful streets of big and small Brazilian cities become white. The reason for this is not the snow that few people saw in this sultry country, just office employees throw old office papers out of the windows, symbolizing in such a way that the old working year is over. What other traditions of the New Year there are in Brazil and what they symbolize, we will tell in this article.

So hot and ... summer!

Since Brazil is located in the Southern Hemisphere, December is one of the hot summer months in it. As early as November, local traders sell colorful garlands and lanterns, artificial spruce and other elements and symbols inherent in the New Year's traditions of different countries. The Brazilians are pleased to decorate all this decor with their homes and offices, shop windows and streets. In this decoration, the streets stand right up to the famous Brazilian carnivals held in February. Given the hot tropical climate and summer, the celebration of the New Year in Brazil takes place on city streets and squares, as well as on beautiful beaches. A traditional New Year's costume in Brazil is any white clothing.

Euro-African motifs

Celebrating the onset of a new calendar year, like the Brazilian one, can not be imagined in any other country in the world. It is here that African, Indian and European beliefs, rituals, customs and traditions of the New Year of different countries have closely intertwined and merged into a single culture. The officially accepted name of this holiday is Confraternização, which means "fraternization" from the Brazilian Portuguese, but its French name - Reveillon - has taken root among the locals. Only on New Year's Eve, the Brazilians are ready to call everyone their friend, brother or sister and want to forget and forgive all resentments and quarrels.

As in most countries that profess Catholicism, there is no tradition to receive congratulations from Santa Claus, here called Papai Noel, for the New Year in Brazil, as it is a symbol of Christmas and fulfills its mission on this holiday - on December 24.

Traditions

As already noted above, Brazilians consider the New Year a public holiday, celebrated in the company of friends. Despite this, they have their own peculiar traditions of the New Year. Since there are no usual chimes in our country, all the noisy and cheerful companies gathered in the city streets, squares and beaches loudly read out the last moments before the next year. Exactly at midnight, the black sky is colored with fountains of fireworks, so they celebrate the New Year in Brazil. Traditions prescribe to all who want to be happy and successful, in the very first minutes of it, to jump seven times and wish happiness in the coming year to those around them. Also, the Brazilians are sure that if in the New Year's Eve to make a wish and eat twelve berries of grapes, it will certainly come true.

Rituals

This holiday is held taking into account both European and Indian traditions and customs, and African rituals, closely intertwined among themselves and are the basis of the theatrical action that takes place when local people celebrate the New Year in Brazil. The scenario of African celebration can be seen, first of all, on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. It is believed that the time when the old year leaves, and the new one comes to replace it, is optimally suited for communicating with spirits and their pleasures, in order to soften the attitude towards people.

Catholic faith and African rituals have become firmly established in the life of the Brazilians, and each of them, on the eve of the coming New Year, tries to sacrifice and appease his personal saint-the oryx and the sea-goddess-goddess Yemanju.

What are these gods?

Let's talk a little about who the Iemangju and the Oryx are. The fact is that the Portuguese brought to Brazil many slaves from Africa and forcibly baptized them into the Catholic faith. Forced Africans had to observe all the religious orders of the church and go to the services. However, they did not want to give up their traditional faith - Candomblé - and managed to keep it. According to the assumptions adopted in this religion, each person is "looked after" by a personal god or by a saint, called Oricksom.

Legends say that the lord of the seas of Iemanzhu is a beautiful woman with hair of the moonlit creeping paths along the sea surface. She likes fun, dancing and flowers. New Year in Brazil, the tradition is prescribed to begin with offering flowers and candles to Iemanzhu. Everyone who wants to bow to the sea goddess sets on a special wooden candle-stand candles and fresh flowers and, after making a wish, sends it all into the sea. The longer the candle sent to the sea burns, the greater the likelihood that it will come true. If the raft nails back to the shore, then the desire will need to be repeated for the next year. Those who aspire to receive the maximal arrangement of the African goddess, decorate a raft with mirrors and stack on it sweets and rice, soap and spirits. Offerings formidable to Iemanzhu, the ruler of sea waters, are held under ritual prayers and singing and are accompanied by special dances.

Modern holiday

In addition to the observance of African rituals, the modern meeting of the New Year in Brazil is not complete without a peaceful cannonade, the opening of champagne and a magnificent pyrotechnic action. On the beaches of Copacabana, about a million locals and tourists watch the fireworks launched from special rafts installed in the sea. And in the Freitas lagoon, against the backdrop of the huge sculpture of the Savior stretching his arms above the city, the world's tallest floating tree - 82 meters - competes in the brightness of the lights with a festive salute. But the city streets and squares are not inferior to beaches and lagoons in the scale of pyrotechnics. From the roofs and balconies of houses and hotels, cascades of lights pour down, and above all this a huge airship flies, from where New Year's congratulations sound.

Until the morning, music plays, crowds of people dance to incendiary melodies and firecrackers and fireworks are launched.