Rio de Janeiro’s New Year’s celebration is just the second biggest party in the city after Carnival. And this year’s $ 2.5 million figure sounded in 2021 with the usual folk superstition and religious traditions.
Lucrecia Franco, of CGTN, reports.
A beach full of Copacabana with more than 2.9 million tourists and locals, according to city officials, came together to count the last seconds of 2020 and welcome a new year and a new decade.
When the clock struck twelve, an impressive 14-minute fireworks castle lit up the Rio de Janeiro sky. The nearly 17 tons of pyrotechnics brought magic to what is considered the largest New Year’s beach party on earth. A moment to remember.
This year’s theme was “Love at Every Sight”, or Love Wherever You Look, a tribute to the city itself. And like many other Brazilians celebrating, New Year’s Eve takes root in their African roots. Drums, rituals of Candomblé and Umbanda, the two main Afro-Brazilian religions.
There is a cheerful mysticism among believers and the curious alike, an eternal hope for the new year, and the feast quickly becomes the sea and the ritual of jumping seven waves, each of them, the opportunity to make a wish. Most people demanded health and peace.
And, as tradition dictates, everyone was dressed in white, a color with the power to ward off evil spirits, bring peace to the world and, above all, pay homage to Iemanja, the Afro-Brazilian goddess of the sea.
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