CULTURE

The core culture of Brazil is derived from Portuguese culture, because of its strong colonial ties with the Portuguese empire. The Portuguese introduced the Portuguese language, Roman Catholicism and colonial architectural styles. The indigenous Amerindians influenced Brazil's language and cuisine; and the Africans influenced language, cuisine, music, dance and religion. Brazilian art has developed since the 16th century into different styles that range from Baroque to Romanticism, Modernism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism and Abstractionism. Brazilian cinema dates back to the birth of the medium in the late 19th century and has gained a new level of international acclaim since the 1960s

MUSIC
The music of Brazil was formed mainly from the fusion of European and African elements. The major contribution of the African element was the rhythmic diversity and some dances and instruments that had a bigger role in the development of popular music and folk, flourishing especially in the twentieth century. Popular music since the late eighteenth century began to show signs of forming a characteristically Brazilian sound, with samba considered the most typical. The sport of capoeira is usually played with its own music refer to as capoeira music, which is usually considered to be a call-and-response type of folk music. Choro is a very popular music instrumental style. Its origins are in 19th century Rio de Janeiro. The style often has a fast and happy rhythm. Bossa nova is also a well-known style of Brazilian music. The phrase "bossa nova" means literally "new trend".] A lyrical fusion of samba and jazz.

A samba parade in Rio de Janeiro

The sport of capoeira

LITERATURE Brazilian literature dates back to the 16th century. Such as Pro Vaz de Caminha, filled with descriptions of fauna, flora. Brazil produced significant works in Romanticism; novelists like Joaquim Manuel de Macedo Jos de Alencar wrote novels about love and pain. The Post-Modernism brought a generation of distinct poets like Joo Cabral de Melo Neto Carlos Drummond de Andrade Vinicius de Moraes internationally known writers dealing with universal and regional subjects like Jorge Amado Joo Guimares Rosa Clarice Lispector.

CUISINE Brazilian cuisine varies greatly by region, reflecting the country's varying mix of indigenous and immigrant populations. Examples are Feijoada, considered the country's national dish Regional foods such as vatap, moqueca, polenta and acaraj The national beverage is coffee and cachaa is Brazil's native liquor. Cachaa is distilled from sugar cane and is the main ingredient in the national cocktail The average meal consist mostly of rice and beans with beef and salad. Its common to mix it with cassava flour (farofa). Fried potatoes, fried cassava, fried banana, fried meat and fried cheese are very often eaten in lunch and served in most typical restaurants. Popular snacks are pastel, coxinha (chicken croquete), po de queijo (cheese bread and cassava flour / tapioca), pamonha (corn and milk paste), esfirra (Lebanese pastry), kibbeh (from Arabic cuisine), Empanada (pastry) and empada little salt pies filled with shrimps or heart of palm. Brazil has a variety of candies such as brigadeiros (chocolate fudge balls) cocada (a coconut sweet) beijinhos (coconut truffles and clove) romeu e julieta (cheese with a guava jam known as goiabada).

Brigadeiro

NATIONAL HOLIDAYS