Brazil is in the Southern Hemisphere, so summer goes from December 21 to March 21. The new school year starts in February and ends in mid-December, meaning that students get a full month of summer vacation. Many families take advantage of the extended time off by heading to the ocean. Some stay at resorts, while others rent out a whole house on the coast for the month.
Company employees combine the end-of-year holidays with their paid vacation time to take off about three weeks, during which they travel abroad or go home to see their families.
January 1 is a holiday, but banks, supermarkets, bakeries, shopping centers, and other major companies open up the following day. Smaller businesses like mom-and-pop restaurants and boutiques each have their own schedules, but most reopen by the second week of January.
They say that between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, some 5.2 million families drive out of São Paulo and head to the ocean or to the interior. The highways get completely jammed. With all of these people gone, the city streets become incredibly quiet.
Of course there is an increase in visitors from other cities and from abroad, but since São Paulo isn’t on the water, it’s not a popular destination during midsummer.
Everyone comes back from vacation before the new school year starts, but even if they hold opening ceremonies on February 1, the Carnival holidays start February 10, leaving no time for classes to get into full swing. College students in particular typically wait until after Carnival to go back to school.
Even businesses and companies don’t really settle in and get back to work until after the Carnival holidays, which causes all kinds of plans to get delayed and leads to the idea that Brazil doesn’t really start things up until after Carnival.
I heard a psychologist say that the fact that both personal and professional plans tend to be put on hold until after the Carnival holiday may feel like a temporary relief, but the delays end up forcing people to rush things, which results in poor outcomes. The most important thing, they said, is starting as soon as you’re ready instead of worrying about an actual plan start date.
The most common question you hear around the end of January is, “Where did you go for the holidays?”—which goes to show you just how many people travel. The next question is, “Where will you go for Carnival?”
Just how long are people going to be in vacation mode?
I tend to worry about how Brazilians seem to take their time getting things done compared to people from other countries, but I also think the fact that they like to take it easy and enjoy long vacations shows you that they know how to enjoy life.
