I always thought Australia had an obsession with public holidays. As well as having a day off for the Queens Birthday – which isn't actually on her birthday – my state of Victoria has recently added “Gran Final Friday” to it's list of holidays. While Australian football is practically a religion in Victoria, a public Holiday for the parade held the day before the big game seems a bit of a stretch.
Oh, and then there's the fact we get a day off for a horse race. Who else does that?
Since being in Brazil though I've realised Australia are simply novices. This country seems to be world beaters when it comes to finding reasons not to work.
New Years Eve is celebrated much like anywhere - champagne!
You have all the usual – Christmas, New Years, Labour Day, Easter etc – but added to that are countless religious holidays, mostly for Saints whom most people don't seem to be able to tell you much about.
There's even one for “Children's Day”, which is something I remember insisting that should exist about 30 years ago but being told by my elders “every day is children's day”.
It's not just that there are many days either, it's that the holiday tends to leak over to the days around it.
“Why is that place closed today?”
“Ah, well, there's a holiday Monday so...”
I'm certainly not complaining though as Brazilians seem to love to celebrate, and with so many excuses to celebrate, there's a lot of fun happening here a lot of the time.
Carnival Party in Porto Alegre
The holiday of the moment is Carnival, which is taken over the country. Being a foreigner, all I knew about Carnival was the street parade in Rio de Janeiro. Little did I know that as well as the various Sambas schools competing for the win in Rio that there were events all over the country occurring for weeks leading up to Carnival Tuesday. In the North Eastern states these events involve enormous street parties that start right after New Years. Unlike the parades in Rio, the street parties are more about participating than watching and are a completely different vibe.
Porto Alegre Street Party
Even here in Porto Alegre, described as cold and boring by much of the rest of the country there are events for Carnival. I was able to follow a “semi sanctioned” street parade as revelers followed samba singers through the streets of Porto Alegre's historic downtown district. While at just a couple of thousand people it was certainly a far cry from the parties in Rio or Northern Brazil, it was certainly a good taste of how Brazilians like to party.
Even someone like myself who's not a fan of dancing was able to have a good time with good singing and dancing among the crowd. Though to be fair, Brazil's liberal street drinking laws would certainly have had a lot to do with it.
All told, Brazil's approach to work and time off seems like it could be a good fit for me – if I ever get a job.
