Reveillon Party Part Of Many NYE Brazilian Customs
The 2016 Summer Olympic Games don’t start until August, but the Brazilians can’t wait to party for it.
So they are starting – appropriately enough – on New Year’s Eve.
The traditional Reveillon party – the second largest celebration in Brazil behind Carnaval – will have different stages for concerts taking place throughout Rio. This will serve as the official opening of months=long festivities for the Games.
During New Years in Brazil, Reveillon parties are major events that incorporate traditions, and celebrations take place all over the country.
Brazil’s New Year’s Eve Customs
Brazilians celebrate life through music and dance and millions of people from all over the world join the party for NYE in Brazil.
But it’s not just music and dancing that are part of the Brazilian NYE scene. There are many other elements which are good to know before going there for the New Year.
For starters, almost everyone in Brazil wears white as a symbolic gesture to welcome peace and prosperity in the New Year.
There are also typical Brazilian foods people eat like lentils and pork, and drinking champagne is supposed to increase one’s luck for the New Year.
And frankly, if drinking champagne does not actually increase your luck in the New Year, then you have a pretty darned good time thinking it does on NYE!
Other traditions include having individuals chew on seven pomegranate seeds at midnight and then preserving the seeds in their wallet. It is also common for people to run into the ocean to jump over seven waves; for every wave they jump, a wish is made for the New Year.
Lastly, many locals and travelers make it a priority to please Goddess lemanjá, “Queen of the Ocean” in the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé. Gifts for Yemanjá include floating lite candles, wooden toy boats with offerings and white flowers are put into the ocean. If the offerings are sent back to shore, the Goddess is displeased and will not grant the wishes..
Thousands and thousands of people participate in the offerings of Goddess lemanjá, and for visitors witnessing this ritual for the first time, it is an extraordinary sight to see.
In Brazilian culture, starting off the New Year on the right foot is and essential part of life. Certainly being in Brazil for NYE is one way to get on that right foot.
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