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
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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.
Brazil is the only country of the world that has the name of a tree, the
wood brasil that means ember wood, it was the only country of the world
an European king (only fact in the world) that left Europe and he went
to live in South America to flee of Napoleão Bonaparte's attack. It was
the only Empire of South America. 
Brazilian models are some of the most sought after models in the world.
Very few countries have more top models then Brazil. I'm sure you've
heard of Giselle Bundchen, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Isabeli
Fontana, Raica Oliveira, Jeisa Chiminazzo, Ana Claudia Michels, Ana
Beatriz Barros, Fernanda Tavares, Fernanda Motta, Ana Paula Araujo, and
Aline Nakashima, just to name few, but it's not just the super models
that make Brazilian women famous the world over. The beautiful women
that take part in Carnival, as well as the beach bunnies that line the
beaches of Brazil with their amazingly skimpy bikinis have drawn the
attention of men from all corners of the globe.
The Amazon. Brazil contains approximately 60% of the Amazon rainforest.
The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests,
and it comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical
rainforest in the world. The Amazon rainforest was short-listed in 2008
as a candidate to one of the New7Wonders of Nature by the New Seven
Wonders of the World Foundation. 
Brazil is a country of mixed ethnicities however, it seems the African
influenced parts of the culture such as Capoeira and the Samba have
reached more notoriety on an international basis. Capoeira is an
Afro-Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, music,
and dance. It was created in Brazil by slaves brought from Africa. It,
as well as the Samba music and dance have made their way into various
movies, documentaries, music videos, and other main stream media. 
Brazil is the largest producer of coffee in the world. The main feature
of the coffee grown in Brazil is the great diversity due to differences
in soils, climate, species and varieties, and cultivation techniques in
each region.
Pizza is definitely the favorite food of many "paulistas" (people from
São Paulo). According to a survey conducted by the Food Service EDC,
about 1.5 million pizzas are consumed each day in Brazil and the state
of São Paulo is responsible for devouring 800,000, or 53% of them. 
