BRAZILIAN CULTURE GUIDE
A CULTURE OF LEISURE AND FUN
Brazil Culture Guide
Image on top: Brazilian people and their leisure style Embratur
For Sao Paulo inhabitants, Rio’s inhabitants – the cariocas - speak too much, spend too much time in beach, and love the sun, the samba, and the soccer in a disproportionate way.
And that’s true, to a certain extend. There is, in Rio de Janeiro, a permanent atmosphere of relaxing and splendour, of sensuality and careless ease. Cariocas tend to be extravagant, linked to music, to sun, to human laziness, to the moment.
The best way to watch and to live this culture is visiting a beach as Copacabana or Ipanema, contacting people, and assisting a samba rehearsal, a carnival ball, going to a restaurant with communal tables, or taking part in a musical event.
Also special, with a more profound African trace, is the culture of Bahia, a northern state, with Salvador as capital. Salvador da Bahia – and Bahia, as a whole - is a very singular case, where music presence is as overwhelming as in Rio, where the pace and rhythm of life is very linked to ancient human standards, and where the cuisine, the mysticism, and the joy and warmness of people make a unique mixture.
For more details about African – Brazil culture, particularly in Bahia, see:
The African – Brazil culture
Brazil in...
Africa
Information about entertainment, nightlife and fun in Rio de Janeiro:
Entertainment, cuisine and nightlife in Rio de Janeiro
Carnival in Rio de Janeiro
For information about Rio de Janeiro and its beaches, see also:
Beaches with high cosmopolitism and animation
Hotel information and booking:
Hotels in Rio de Janeiro
Information about air flights and booking:
Flights to Rio de Janeiro
EUROPEAN AND BUSINESS CULTURE IN BRAZIL
Brazil culture
But there are other styles, and significantly different cultures in Brazil. Brazil is a large conglomeration of cultures, and Bahia and Rio de Janeiro are just some examples of a much diversified cultural pattern.
Sao Paulo – the big metropolis, involving an immediate region of 40 million people, with many different national origins: Portuguese, but also Italian (1 million, largely predominant at
neighborhoods as Bixiga), Spanish or Spanish speaking countries origin (1 million), German (100,000), Arab and Lebanese, and Asiatic (600.000)… - is, perhaps, the major other example. Here, business culture is strong, very strong, and the leisure and music cult is rather absent.
Sao Paulo has the more usual characteristics of a modern metropolis – including the art «luxuries» of the very big cities: excellent museums, cultural parks, art shows, top musical events, excellent restaurants, etc. Annual jazz festivals, world class fashion shows (the Sao Paulo Bienal), theatre, cinema, or opera events, are rather common. Great music performers and «high» culture symbols are constantly arriving at Sao Paulo, from abroad.
For more information about Brazilian links with Europeans,
see:
Brazil in... Europe
Information about entertainment, cuisine and nightlife in Sao Paulo:
Entertainment, cuisine and nightlife in Sao Paulo
For Sao Paulo nearby beaches, see:
Beaches in Sao Paulo and in South of Brazil
Hotel information and booking:
Hotels in Sao Paulo
Information about air flights and booking:
Flights to Sao Paulo
THE SOUTH BRAZILIAN CULTURE
Brazil culture
Sao Paulo is not an isolated case of European culture predominance in Brazil. The South of Brazil is mainly European, in its cultural style, sometimes with visible connections to some particular countries. That’s, undoubtedly, the case of Blumenau – the town where takes place the America’s largest and liveliest beer festival (Oktoberfest), reflecting a large German origin community. Blumenau’s Oktoberfest is a three week festival, a replica of Munich’s, an event that calls more than a million people a year, and rivals with events as Rio de Janeiro or Salvador’s Carnivals.
Blumenau is, indeed, an example of the predominance of European culture on the south of Brazil. Here, the impact of African or Indian culture is insignificant, and the racial blending of other Brazilian states doesn’t exist.
If you want to visit an atypical Brazil, deeply related with European culture, where even the climate is different (four seasons, with a cold one…), choose the southern states. Here you may find folklore, traditions, music and a cuisine (with beer and wine) strictly rooted in Europe.
For more information about the South of Brazil, and its places and beaches, see:
The South of Brazil: beaches and places
Brazil in...
Europe
THE AMAZONIAN CULTURE
Brazil culture
Another example of a very different Brazil culture, is the Amazonian, well represented by the «caboclo» community. The caboclos are the people of the forest: rubber-tappers, fishermen, and small farmers living near the rivers’ margins – about three million people, scattered around the river and the immense rainforest. The Amazonian Indians have almost disappeared. The caboclos are, in a way, their heirs.
For more details about the Amazonian culture, see:
The Amazon people: the caboclos
For complete information about the Amazon:
Travelling in the Amazon rain-forest
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