Top 5 traditions in Brazil

 1. Race and ancestry

Brazil was a colony of Portugal for over three centuries. About a million Portuguese settlers arrived during this period  and brought their culture to the colony. The native inhabitants of Brazil had much contact with the colonists. Many were exterminated, others mixed with the Portuguese. For that reason, Brazil also holds Amerindian influences in its culture, mainly in its food and language. Brazilian Portuguese has hundreds of words of Native American origin, mainly from the Old Tupi language.
Black Africans, who were brought as slaves to Brazil, also participated actively in the formation of Brazilian culture. Although the Portuguese colonists forced their slaves to convert to Catholicism and speak Portuguese their cultural influences were absorbed by the inhabitants of Brazil of all races and origins. Some regions of Brazil, especially Bahia, have particularly notable African inheritances in music, cuisine, dance and language.
Immigrants from Italy, Germany, Spain, Japan, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Austria-Hungary and the Middle East played an important role in the areas they settled (mostly Southern and Southeastern Brazil). They organized communities that became important cities such as Joinville, Caxias do Sul, Blumenau, Curitiba and brought important contributions to the culture of Brazil.

2. Carnival

The Brazilian Carnaval is an annual festival held forty-six days before Easter. Carnival celebrations are believed to have roots in the pagan festival of Saturnalia, which, adapted to Christianity, became a farewell to bad things in a season of religious discipline to practice repentance and prepare for Christ's death and resurrection.
Carnival is the most famous holiday in Brazil and has become an event of huge proportions. The country stops completely for almost a week and festivities are intense, day and night, mainly in coastal cities.
The typical genres of music of Brazilian carnival are: samba-enredo and marchinha (in Rio de Janeiro and Southeast Region), frevo, maracatu and Axé music (in Pernambuco, Bahia and Northeast Region)

3. Cuisine

 Brazilian cuisine varies greatly by region. This diversity reflects the country's mix of natives and immigrants. This has created a national cooking style, marked by the preservation of regional differences. Since the colonial period, the feijoada has been the country's national dish. Luís da Câmara Cascudo wrote that, having been revised and adapted in each region of the country, it is no longer just a dish, but has become a complete food.Rice and beans, also present in the feijoada, and considered basic at Brazilian tables, is highly regarded as healthy because it contains almost all amino acids, fiber, and starches needed for our body.
Brazil has a variety of candies that are traditionally eaten for birthday parties, like brigadeiros ("brigadiers") and beijinhos ("kissies"). Other foods typically consumed in Brazilian parties are coxinhas, churrasco, sfiha, empanadas, and pine nuts (in Festa Junina). Specially in the state of Minas Gerais, are produced and consumed the famous cheese bun. The typical northern food is pato no tucupi, tacacá, caruru, vatapá, and maniçoba; the Northeast is known for moqueca (having seafood and palm oil), acarajé (the salted muffin made with white beans, onion and fried in oil palm (dendê), which is filled with dried shrimp and red pepper), manioc, diz, hominy, dumpling, and Quibebe. In the Southeast, it is common to eat Minas cheese, pizza, tutu, sushi, stew, polenta, and masses of macaroni, lasagna, and gnocchi. In the South, these foods are also popular, but the churrasco is the typical meal of Rio Grande do Sul. Cachaça is Brazil's native liquor, distilled from sugar cane, and it is the main ingredient in the national drink, the caipirinha. Brazil is the world leader in production of green coffee (café) because the Brazilian fertile soil, the country could produce and expand its market maker and often establish its economy with coffee, since the Brazilian slavery, which created a whole culture around this national drink,which became known as the "fever of coffee"  and satirized in the novelty song" The Coffee Song", sang by Frank Sinatra and with lyrics by Bob Hilliard, interpreted as an analysis of the coffee industry, and of the Brazilian economy and culture.

4. Arts

Arts in the country also do not cease to be plural. Performing arts involve some of the most popular artistic expression in the country: theater, circus and dance. The first contacts with theater in Brazil occurred in the sixteenth century, with Father Jose de Anchieta, who used art to evangelize the Indians. In the following centuries, it diversified with the introduction of parts brought from Spain and Portugal and the construction of large theaters, to the present day with big international blockbusters arriving here all the time.
Brazilian dance has multiple origins and receives influences from other countries, mainly African, Moorish, European and indigenous. They are different in each region of the country; some of the best known are: samba, maxixe, xaxado, baião, frevo and gafieira. There are also folk and traditional dances as forró, axé and others.
Visual arts include: painting, drawing, printmaking, photography and movies, sculpture, installation, architecture, fashion, decoration and landscaping. Many of them are printed in Brazilian craftsmanship that in each region incorporates a typical feature. In the South and Southeast, especially in the states of Santa Catarina and Minas Gerais, products are made with banana leaves, as well as pots, jugs and vases in ceramics. Minas Gerais is also noted for its carpets and bedspreads made in handloom, parts made of pewter and decorative stones carved from various types of ore.
In the Midwest, the focus is also on embroidery and related activities in wood, pottery, tapestry and works with fruits and seeds. Porcelain animals and earthenware jugs are very common in Goias and Mato Grosso. In addition to clay and wood related crafts, the Northeast stands out for its famous bobbin lace, in Ceará. All production techniques using cotton fibers are legacy of Portuguese colonization and are preserved until today. It is important to mention the participation of braided straw, woven baskets made with carnauba, bamboo and vines.

5. Music

In Brazil, music is one of the most important art demonstrations and national culture, also respected internationally. Noteworthy because it goes beyond the world-famous Carnival. With the distribution of immigrants throughout the country each region of the country developed its own rhythm. Rio de Janeiro is known for the bossa nova of Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes and the sambas of Noel Rosa. Pernambuco stands out for Frevo and Maracatu. In Bahia the rhythm is called Axé Music. In the South, specifically the Rio Grande do Sul is known for its Gaucho songs, played with guitar and accordion, an instrument also used in the Northeast, by interpreters of forró, maxixe and baião, popularized by Luis Gonzaga.
Carlos Gomes, Heitor Villa Lobos, Chiquinha Gonzaga, Joaquim Calado, Carmen Miranda, Noel Rosa and Ary Barroso are just some of the innumerable names and styles that make up the history of Brazilian music. The rhythms are renewed; new trends emerge, but always with the musical creativity characteristic of the country.