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The Holy Beach Of Rio

Everyone should spend at least one New Year's Eve mingling on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. Despite the massive crowds and the often underwhelming concerts, the cheers at midnight are joyous and the sights are fantastic. But if you're in town earlier in the evening, take a walk on the beach to catch the offerings to Iemanjá, a folk tradition honored at the end of every year on the beach.

In the Afro-Brazilian Umbanda religion, Iemanjá is the goddess of the sea and the protectress of women and fertility. Umbanda practicants dress in white to bring flowers, build altars and set out floating candles for Iemanjá, a rite practiced on New Year's Eve in Rio but a few weeks earlier in Salvador de Bahia and in February in Rio Vermelho, where the local Catholic church has rededicated her as Our Lady of the Seafarers. The cachaça will wait, we promise.

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[Photo: zeiger]