Brazil's Valentine's Day -Dia dos Namorados- 12 June

Dia dos Namorados (from Portuguese, which means: "Friends Day"), celebrated on June 12 in Brazil, near the day of St. Anthony's death on June 13. 



Like Valentine's Day, this day too is celebrated with gifts, romantic activities, decorations and celebrations. The term "Dia dos Namorados" is also used in other Portuguese-speaking countries.  
Antonius of Padua, also known as Saint Anthony, died on 13 June 1231 in Padua, Italy. Dia dos Namorados is celebrated on 12 June, on the eve of Saint Anthony's Day.
It is believed that Saint Anthony brings blessing to young couples for a happy and prosperous marriage.
Brazilian Valentine Day is celebrated with the exchange of gifts such as chocolate and flowers, nocturnal dates, home decoration and streets, and marches and carnivals of samba dancing and folk music.

Single women do a ritual called sympathy, which aims to help them find a husband or a good partner.
In Brazil, Valentine's Day is not celebrated because February 14 usually falls on the Brazilian carnival. Because Brazil does not celebrate Valentine's Day in February, many singles from the West love to be in Brazil on February 14 and stay away from the sticky romance that surrounds the rest of the world. American news sites have already announced that Brazil is the number one country to visit to celebrate the Valentine's Day.  

In other Portuguese-speaking countries, especially in Africa, Valentine's Day called "Dia dos Namorados" was celebrated on Valentine's Day in February.  
By coincidence, but right, the Dia dos Namorados are celebrating in the anniversary of the US Supreme Court's decision in 1967 to repeal the ban on interracial marriage across the United States.

Feliz Dia Dos Namorados greeting cards

June 12 is also Falafel Day

All Souls' Day - November 2

Along with the holidays of Halloween, and the day after that, the Day of the Dead, there is another day that is celebrated in honor of the dead and it is called "All Souls' Day". All Souls' Day is a holiday that Catholic Christians celebrate every year, on November 2, in honor of their deceased loved ones.

The holiday is celebrated in many places in the world where there are Catholic communities and the celebration lasts more often than two days.

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The holiday is celebrated with meals in memory of the dead and ceremonies in cemeteries with lit candles, marigold flowers (known in Spanish: Flor de Muerto - the flowers of death, which they believe call the spirits of the dead), incense, pictures or other souvenirs from the dead. Some people decorate with skulls that are made of paper or make and eat sugar skulls. There are also spectacular processions of skeletons and spirits, and cardboard coffins from which fake skeletons jump at random times.

In South America this day celebration is given special importance and has a special character. The traditional purpose of the holiday is to help, through prayer, the souls of loved ones who desire to be cleansed from their sins and come out of the addict to heaven.

The crucible is the place that is after death, between the world of life and heaven, where the soul of the one who has not sinned in his life sins of death is carried out. He who has committed the sins of death for which there is no atonement cannot pass purification and is condemned to hell.

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 November 2 is also Cookie Monster's birthday and  Look for Circles Day

Day of the Dead - November 1

Despite the scary and perhaps also depressing name, Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de los Muertos, Día de los Difuntos or, Día de Muertos) is a day of happy and cheerful celebration celebrated with costumes, carnivals and dances.

Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday dedicated to the memory of the fathers who passed away. It is celebrated on the first and second days of November, the day Christians celebrate Halloween (which comes after Halloween) and the day before all the souls of the Catholic Church.

The holiday is celebrated with a cheerful and happy carnival in Mexico and other places where there are large Mexican communities.

During the day it is customary to go to cemeteries and churches and bring the dead gifts such as bottles of tequila, candles and flowers. People come to the carnival in skeleton and mask costumes or make-up of creative skulls, walking around with dolls of the dead and dancing.

In the photo: a grave with gifts and candles

Other countries that celebrate the Day of the Dead are the Philippines, Brazil and other countries in Latin America.

The origin of the holiday is the cultures of the original natives of the American continent (mistakenly referred to as "Indians") - the Aztec culture, the Mayan culture, the Porfercha, the Nahuel and the Totonak.

Painting: Large electric skull, by Mexican painter Jose Guadeloupe Posada

In Aztec culture the Day of the Dead is celebrated in the ninth month of the Aztec calendar, starting in early August, for an entire month. The holiday is considered the feast of the goddess Miktakakiwadel, "Goddess of the Dead," during which ceremonies were held for the souls of the dead relatives.

When Mexico was conquered by the Spaniards in the 15th century, Christian missionaries worked to eradicate the pagan holiday, and did so by postponing the holiday and uniting it with the Catholic holiday, All Saints' Day, which was held on the first day of November.

November 1 is also World Vegan Day and Go Cook For Your Pets Day

Brazil Independence Day - September 7

The Federal Republic of Brazil celebrates on September 7 the independence it gained from Portugal on this date in 1822.

Brazil is the largest country in its territory and population in South America, and the fifth largest in its territory and population in the world.

Brazil is located in the easternmost part of the Americas, occupies 47.3% of the continent and borders ten countries: all countries in South America except Ecuador and Chile. It is bordered to the south by Uruguay, to the southwest by Argentina, to the west by Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru, to the northwest by Colombia and to the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.

Brazil is named after the Brazilian tree brazilwood (Paubrasilia) that grew in abundance until the middle of the 16th century (today the tree is endangered), which was valued by the first European settlers as an important natural resource. The name of the tree is derived from the word "brasa", which means "charcoal" in Portuguese, inspired by the orange-red hue of the core of the Brazil tree trunk.

Some other interesting facts about Brazil:

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Brazil has the second highest number of airports in the world, after the United States. (Source)

In Brazil, free sex reassignment surgery has been possible with a subsidy from Brazil's public health system since 2008. (Source)

Brazil is defined as a "federal republic" consisting of a federal province, 26 states and 5,570 municipalities. (source)

Brazil's economy is the seventh largest in the world in gross domestic product as of 2015.

The national animal of Brazil is the Macaw parrot. 

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Brazil has been the largest coffee maker in the world for the past 150 years.

The main exporter of Brazil nuts is not Brazil. This is Bolivia.

Brazil is the first country in the world to start banning the use of tanning beds, because they can cause skin cancer.  

In Sao Paulo, Brazil there is a copy of the first temple, of King Solomon, with 10,000 seats. (source)

92% of all new cars sold in Brazil use ethanol as a fuel, extracted from sugar cane.

A study found that 35% of men living in rural areas of Brazil had sex with animals.

About 4 million slaves were taken from Africa to Brazil during the slavery period, which is about 40% of all slaves in America.

Apple's iPhone costs twice as much in Brazil as in the US.

The capital of Brazil, Brasilia, looks like a plane from above.

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Brasilia was built for 41 months, from 1956 to 1960.

Rio de Janeiro was once the capital of Portugal, making it the only European capital outside of Europe.

The beaches of Rio de Janeiro are very dangerous to health - they have 1.7 million viruses that cause diseases from a level that is considered dangerous off the coast of California. (source)

The largest Japanese community outside of Japan is in Brazil.

Brazil distributes breast milk to women around the country to babies whose mothers are unable to breastfeed them. (source)

The name Rio de Janeiro means "January River" and its origin is by mistake. The Portuguese explorer Gaspar de Lemos arrived at the city's bay on January 1, 1502 and mistakenly thought it was a river estuary.

The 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were the first time a country in South America was given the right to host them.

Half of the top 20 cities in the world with the highest homicide rates are in Brazil.

Brazil has a prison that allows inmates to pedal on stationary bikes, to provide electricity to a nearby city in exchange for a reduced sentence. (source)

Brazilian prisoners can reduce their sentence by 4 days for every book they read and write a report on.

There is a city in Brazil called "Nao-Me-Toque", meaning "Do not touch me".

Voting is mandatory in Brazil.

The 2016 Brazilian Congress included suspects charged with murder and drug trafficking, a judo champion and a clown. (source)

There is an underground river 4 km (2.4 miles) long below the Amazon River in Brazil. (Source)

In Brazil there is an island that citizens are not allowed to reach: it has about 5 snakes per square meter.

Snake Island in Brazil (source) 

Brazil was the only country in South America that sent ground forces to fight during World War II, with over 25,000 troops.

The people of the Bororo tribe in Brazil are one of the few groups of people who all have the same blood type: "O". (source)

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In 2013, the man who was in seventh place in the rich men world, the Brazilian businessman Ike Batista, lost his fortune of $ 30 billion and owed $ 1 billion. (source)

In Brazil, only 43% of adults have a high school education. (Compared to Sweden, where 87% have a higher education).

Brazil has a replica of the Statue of Liberty (also in Pakistan, Malaysia, Taiwan and even China).

The revolution that made Brazil a republic was so uneventful that the few witnesses present did not know it had happened, and Emperor Pedro II, who had lost his monarchy, did not care. (source)

The Earth's magnetic field has been steadily weakening for the past 180 years, especially around Brazil and Argentina.

3 out of 5 richest people in Brazil got rich from beer. (source)

The biggest rock concert ever was in front of 4.2 million people. The singer who performed was Rod Stewart, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on December 31, 1994. (Source)

In 2006, 15,000 signs were removed in Sao Paulo when the municipality banned outdoor advertising.

Brazil ranks second in the world in the highest rate of deforestation, after Indonesia which ranks first.

The Brazilian athletes funded their trip to the 1932 Olympics by selling coffee on the way. (source)

In 1958, Rhino was nominated for city council election in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Most of the Amazon rainforests are found in Brazil (60%), and also in Peru (13%), Colombia (10%), Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and three other countries.

The largest Catholic population in the world is neither in Italy nor in Spain. It is located in Brazil: 123 million people, 64% of the population.

A gram of cocaine costs € 207 in Australia, but only € 9 in Brazil.

Every 10 minutes a person is murdered in Brazil. (source)

In Brazil, the word "Rio" is pronounced as "Hio".

The statue of Christ the Redeemer, located on Mount Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro has been declared one of the Seven New Wonders of the World.

Women in Brazil only spend about an hour and a half a week doing housework. (source)

At the Zerão Stadium in Brazil, the pitch line is on the equator, making each team a defender on a different hemisphere. (source)

Located in northwestern Brazil amid the Amazon rainforest, Tumucumaque Mountains National is the largest tropical forest park in the world. It is larger than Belgium. (source)

The bones of Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele are used in forensic medical courses in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Piranha soup is a popular aphrodisiac in Brazil.

The first carnival in Brazil was in 1723. (source)

6 months after the end of the Rio Olympics in 2016, Maracana Stadium was abandoned, electricity was cut off, worms invaded it and it lacked almost 10% of the 78,000 seats it had. (source)

September 7 is also National Salami Day