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Festivals: Brazil's Boi-Bumbá

By Zachary Bleckner

If Rio de Janeiro’s Carnaval is the greatest party in the world, then Boi Bumbá (beat the bull) is a close second. Every June, thousands of Brazilians flock to the small Amazonian river town of Parintins, Amazonas—halfway between Santarém and Manaus—to celebrate Brazil’s second-largest annual festival.

Boi Bumbá pits the city’s two samba schools—the Garantido and the Caprichoso—against each other over three nights of dazzling theatrical competition. Both schools reenact a local legend about the resurrection of a favorite ox that was slaughtered to...

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