Festivals in Portugal and Brazil
Carnival
The world -famous Rio de Janeiro street party, a huge international tourist attraction, which usually takes place in February of March, is the best known example of the festival described in Portuguese as carnaval. Carnival is celebrated throughout Brazil and Portugal.
The Rio carnival is a spectacular parade involving great elaborate floats which focus on a particular historical religious or social theme. Exuberant costumes, exhilarating percussion music, sensuous dancing and the sheer numbers of participants provide drama and excitement unequaled in this form anywhere else on the globe.
Carnival is believed to draws its inspiration from the Ancient Greek and Roman festivals, the medieval Catholic church, the Portuguese entrudo (water and powder-throwing pranks) as well masked balls and modifications by African-descended Brazilians.
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People’s Saints and St. Anthony’s
Lisbon’s largest festivities begin with the festival of St. Anthony (Santo Antonio) on June 12 and continue for weeks with the Festival of the Popular Saints. Fifty or so Arraiais, street parties, erupt (mainly) throughout the old city where celebrants indulge in grilled sardines and dance the night away as fireworks and bonfires light up the sky. A colourful grand parade of district associations starts off the party which continues with concerts traditional and modern in the Portuguese capital’s principal squares.
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Saint John Festival
Portugal’s second city, Oporto (Porto), comes to life for the summer solstice in honour of St. John (Sao Joao) in June 23 and 24. Traditional boats race along the river while residents toast each other with the region’s famous port wine, jump over fires and gather to celebrate all night in the city’s squares.
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Braga Easter (Holly Week)
Easter in Braga, Portugal’s religious capital, sees the greatest concentration of Easter festivals taking place in the North of the country where glorious processions fill the streets in the week leading up to Easter Sunday.
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Others
The Festival of Holy Ghost
These street parades combine processions to the local churches, eating drinking and merriment, and the choosing of a queen, or, in Brazil, a Prince, in the Azores, an Emperor and Empress, for the celebrations.
In the Azores the Festa do Espírito Santo takes place on weekends during the Summer months while in Paraty (the second photo), a colonial town on the coast south of Rio de Janeiro, it happens 50 days after Easter and lasts for a whole week.
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Boi Bumba
One of Brazil's greatest folk festivals, Boi Bumba, draws forty thousand tourists every year to the Amazonian island of Parintins, (nearest city Manaus), to witness the battle between groups representing mythological figures. Celebrations take place between 28 and 30 June.
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