White Night

This morning we headed to the local shopping centre in search of white clothes. Brazilians traditionally wear white on New Years Eve because it is a symbol of peace. If you'd like to read more about this tradition and it's origins I found a great blog about it here. The shopping centre was just like one of ours, and after a couple of hours we all had outfits for the night to come.

Earlier that morning I had asked the hotel to book us somewhere to go for dinner, as I was paranoid of a repeat of Christmas Eve, so when we returned we picked up our tickets for a all you can eat and drink buffet near the beach. Check!

We still had the afternoon to kill, so we walked down to Copacabana Beach and had fun playing in the waves and people watching. We noticed there were many flowers in the water which was due to another tradition of jumping seven waves and offering flowers for luck in peace or prosperity for the coming year.

We headed back to the hotel to get ready, had a drink and played some cards in the bar then headed out to our buffet dinner. The food was fabulous and it was fantastic evening. At 11pm we wandered down to Copacabana beach (with 2 million others) and found a spot to sit a watch the fireworks and ring in the new year. The fireworks are definitely famous for a reason! They were amazing, and we ended our night happily walking back to our hotel through the streets of Rio.