Brazil+Culture

The Brazilian culture: Beliefs, traditions, societal expectations.

**The country is often divided into five regions: //1. Norte// (North), //2. Nordeste// (Northeast), //3. Centro-Oeste// (Central-West), //4. Sudeste// (Southeast), 5. //Su// l (South). These divisions are used for administrative purposes such as the national Brazilian census and they roughly correspond to geographic, demographic, economic, and cultural variation within this sprawling nation.** 


 * Traditions and Beliefs: **
 * **Carnival is a four-day extravaganza marked by parades of costumed dancers and musicians, formal balls, street dancing, and musical contests, a truly national party during which Brazilians briefly forget what they call the "hard realities of life." **
 * **Carnival is symbolic of the national ethos because it plays to many of the dualities in Brazilian life: wealth and poverty, African and European, female and male. **
 * **The carnival allows the class hierarchies based on wealth and power to be briefly set aside, poverty is forgotten, men may dress as women, leisure supplants work, and the disparate components of Brazilian society blend in a dizzying blaze of color and music. **




 * **Brazilians are also passionate about soccer and are rated among the best players of the sport in the world. **
 * ** Every four years when the world's best teams vie for the World Cup championship, Brazil virtually shuts down as the nation's collective attention turns to the action on the playing field. **




 * **And when Brazil wins the World Cup—as it has on more occasions than any other country. Brazilian flags are hoisted aloft, everyone wears green and yellow (the national colors), and thousands of Brazilians take to the streets in revelry. **




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