Pulsing with irresistible rhythms, Brazil continues to confuse those who wonder how a country in such persistent distress can keep on dancing. Brazilians dance to spite their plight, and to transcend it---believing that pleasure is the only way to relieve pain. And if you doubt the prescription's effectiveness just plop yourself down for a minute in the mayhem of Carnival, or look into the rolled-back eyes of a drum-whacking cult priestess. Suddenly things like solutions and inhibitions get tossed aside in favor of fate and fun. Suddenly, you've turned Brazilian.

Brazil's indigenous people had their own festivals long before the Portuguese colonizers brought their traditions and special days. Next came African slaves, who added exotic rhythms and elements of their animist religions to the Iberian Christianity of their masters. Today, the fallout of this three-way culture clash is an ethnically scrambled, geographically huge nation that's incredibly rich in tradition. Brazil is a country where people constantly gather to sing, dance, and celebrate something---be it religion, sports, or life itself

December 31, 2005: After the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, vultures high in the trees will overlook Brazilians running through the streets of Rio decorated with bells and bright flowers. The revelers will be running to the sea with flowers and candles to give to the goddess Iemanjá on her festival day.

"Let the happiness begin," declares King Momo, igniting a fire of fantasy and rhythm so extravagant that the entire world feels the heat. "The world's greatest party" is a sleepless juggernaut of music, masquerade, magic, and madness---a gargantuan spectacle in which the spectators are intimately involved

Where to start? First, there's the magnitude. Although the official holiday lasts only four days, almost nothing else happens for two weeks. Traffic comes to a halt and cabbies don't care; they can watch a beautiful girl---or boy---slither across the hoods of their cars. Thousands of transvestites parade in front of the Garota de Ipanema, and neighborhoods become rhythm machines as more than 600 block parties and street parades send up a cacophony of drums, whistles, triangles, and yelping instruments called cuicas. At nighttime balls, Rio's rich and famous dance away in $10,000 costumes, while on the beach strolling samba bands attract throngs of writhing sequined bikinis. Helicopters spin overhead, broadcasting the event to a nationwide television audience concerned with nothing else. Although the balls cater to a rich, mostly white crowd, on the streets Carnival has the role of great equalizer in Brazil's highly stratified society.

The samba beat penetrates all social levels in Brazil; secretaries become feathered dancing queens for the week, while bankers jump into the musical fray with street sweepers and petty thieves. The celebration also equalizes the sexes, since in addition to being the world's biggest party, it's the world's biggest transvestite gathering. And no matter what kind of scene they're into, Carnival's 300,000 or so overseas visitors find language gaps and cold-climate reserve melting away in a whirl of confetti, sexual ambiguity, and Afro-Brazilian percussion.

Rio's samba schools present the highlight of the city's organized activities, a two-day parade at the "Sambadrome" built especially for this purpose. The huge open-air structure has grandstands, party boxes, and largely unused chairs. Nearly everyone remains standing, dancing to the breathtaking pageant of massive floats, shimmying costumes, and infectious tempos. A burst of fireworks announces each school's entrance, then the bateria, a corps of four or five hundred drummers, blitzes out a samba beat that whips the dancers---all 3,500 or so---into a frenzy of motion. At that point, one of the world's most dramatic spectacles of popular culture unfolds onto the promenade, a giant, dynamic mass of rhythm and color. Each school is determined to drive the crowd wild and win acclaim as the best sambistas in Rio. The audience, sensing correctly that it's part of the show, responds to the visual and auditory rhythms with singing, hugging, and a massive free-form dance frenzy. Inside and outside the Sambadrome, the exuberant, infectious, and all-consuming fever is everywhere. In halls and streets packed way past capacity, all sense of decorum has long since evaporated into an orgy of dancing, singing, and exhibitionism, driven past all limits by the primal power of the samba beat.

DATE:The two weeks before Ash Wednesday.

LOCATION: Rio de Janeiro.

TRANSPORT: Rio can be easily reached by air from nearly anywhere in the world, but since incoming flights are jammed during Carnival, book well in advance.

ACCOMMODATION: Book at least six months in advance and expect hiked-up prices and minimum seven-day stays.

Carnival In Bahia - Brazil - Salvador - February/March

Whereas Rio's Carnival is famous for its grand balls and samba school parades, Carnival in Salvador is one of the world's great, spontaneous street parties. There's more grit than glitter, as giant sound trucks splash the ear-shattering Afro-Brazilian Carnival rhythms that drive the dancing pandemonium in the streets. The center of all this participatory action is Praga Castro Alves, but the trucks, a uniquely Bahian phenomenon, are parked anywhere there's room. Sometimes they play taped music, but often live bands are set up on the flat beds. You'll see them moving slowly along the streets like giant, 20th-century pied pipers, stirring throngs of jumping bodies to chase along. Groups called Afoxi societies parade through the streets in fantastic outfits, presenting the sacred music and dancing of Candombli. These rituals are so close to their roots that participants still sing and chant in African dialects. The most striking society is the Filhos de Gandhi (Sons of Gandhi), whose thousands of members wear white tunics and turbans reminiscent of the original clothing of the East African slaves brought to Brazil. Projecting a completely outlandish appearance, these enigmatic marchers move through the streets to their mystical, percussive music.

DATE: The two weeks before Ash Wednesday.

LOCATION: Salvador (Bahia).

TRANSPORT: Salvador can be reached by air and bus from all big Brazilian cities, and by air from Miami, Frankfurt, Paris, and Buenos Aires.

ACCOMMODATION: A large variety of hotels and pousadas

The economically poor but culturally rich streets of northeastern Brazil are particularly great places to experience Carnival. In addition to the usual all-day, all-night pandemonium, Carnival here offers astounding treats in the form of the regional frjvo, caboclinho, and maracatz dances, in which participants scoff at gravity and push the limits of human endurance. The entire city of Recife knows carnival is about to arrive when they hear the drums of the maracatzs approaching. These groups originated when some slave owners let slaves elect their own kings and other officials, allowing them to stage ceremonious crownings. Stopping to dance in front of all the churches on their way into town, the maracatz groups are led by a small cart that bears the figure of an animal. Then come the king and queen, dancing under umbrellas as their entourage drums and chants a series of calls and responses in African dialects. The frjvo vaguely resembles a wild Russian dance, with deep one-legged knee bends and gracefully flailing limbs. The caboclinhos are even more outlandish, with their traditional Indian garb of red feather headdresses, brightly colored anklets, beaded necklaces, and shiny medallions. Playing shrill native instruments, they precision-dance with leaps, spins, and backward hops, sometimes beating arrows against bows as they writhe around.

DATE: The two weeks before Ash Wednesday.

LOCATION: Recife and Olinda are located about 830 km / 515 miles north of Salvador, in the State of Pernambuco

TRANSPORT: Recife can be reached directly by air from Miami, London, Lisbon, and Paris; and by train or bus from elsewhere in Brazil. Olinda is located about a half hour north of Recife.

ACCOMMODATION: Both cities have plenty of low-budget and high-end accommodations, with a shortage of mid-range lodging.

Festival of The Goddess of The Sea (Iemanja) - Brazil - Fortaleza and coastal Ceara - August

Although guests often feel like intruders at authentic Candombli ceremonies, Fortaleza's Festival of Iemanja, the goddess of the sea, is large enough that visitors can attend without causing a stir. This is a great occasion to witness the impressive rites of the Umbanda, as the Candombli religion is often called in this area. Believers begin arriving on the beach at noon from more than 150 nearby terreiros (churches), and each congregation stakes out a particular piece of beach. By late afternoon the celebration is in full swing, with terreiro members beating drums and chanting in their white-and-blue robes, or parading images of Iamanja up and down the beach. Priests, both male and female, dance around in trances, sometimes foaming at the mouth and jerking spasmodically with their eyes rolled back. Entering into a brief religious trance (passo) is part of the festival experience, and worshippers often welcome people into their circle for a brief trance with the help of a priest or priestess. Drummers lay down a spastic rhythm while the priestess takes the initiate's hand and begins to chant. She often puffs cigar smoke and spins the initiate around the circle in a slow dance that gets steadily faster, while terreiro members stand ready to steady or catch an entranced person who stumbles. Since the goddess is said to enjoy carnal pleasures, she's honored with drinking, smoking, and a great deal of sexually ambiguous dancing, especially by the often-bisexual priests and priestesses. At dusk everyone moves to the surf, where wooden rafts are loaded with flowers, jewelry, perfume, and champagne. The rafts are launched into the sea, then symbolically overturned, thus satisfying the carnal desires of the goddess.

DATE: August 15 in Fortaleza. The festival is also celebrated on the beaches of Bahia on February 2, and in Rio on New Year's Eve. (See above)

LOCATION: Futuro Beach (Praia do Futuro) in Fortaleza has the largest celebration, but other coastal cities in Ceara have similar celebrations.

TRANSPORT: Fortaleza's airport handles flights from all over Brazil, and intercity buses serve the northeast and north. Take a Praia do Futuro bus from the city center to the beach.

ACCOMMODATION: On the beach or in the city center, Fortaleza has plenty of hotels in all categories

WHILE YOU'RE THERE .. :

Festas Juninas, Paratm and nationwide

Three festivals in June honor Brazil's favorite saints, Anthony, John, and Peter. Paratm's baroque churches, colorful fishing wharfs, and old-world atmosphere are particularly alive during the festivities.

(June.) Bumba Meu-Boi, Sao Luis, and throughout Maranhao:

Cattle-raising areas celebrate the religious story of a slave who kills his master's ox and must resurrect it or be put to death himself. In addition to dancing and street processions, the folk tale is reenacted by costumed dancers, who are particularly colorful and talented in the island city of Sco Lums. (About 10 days, starting June 24.)

Parintins - Amazonas

This same festival is celebrated in Parintins, Amazonas, on June 28, 29, and 30. Parintins, a relative small river community, is filled completely .... there are few pousadas or hotels ... and visitors often sleep on the boats that brought them, or in a hamock on the beach.

Cmrio de Nazari, Belem:

The Amazon region's largest annual festival features an extremely large procession in which crowds battle for the right to carry the "miracle car" holding the image of the Virgin. The church is decked out with lights, and bands play music non-stop. (15 days in mid-October.)

Reveillon, Rio:

Iemanja, the goddess of the sea is worshipped at the Copacabana beach with dances, chanting, and the launching of small boats with offerings. (December 31.)

Festival of Jesus of Navigators, Salvador and Aracajz:

Led by a decorated galley, hundreds of small, wildly festooned boats parade just off the Boa Viagem beach in Salvador, and through the Sergipe River in Aracajz. The festival includes four days of feasting, dancing, and drinking (December 29 through January 1.)