Capoeirista Day in Brazil Date in the current year: August 3, 2024

Capoeira is a martial art that originated in Brazil. It is different from most other martial arts because capoeira combines elements of acrobatics, dance, and music. Capoeira practitioners are called capoeiristas.

The martial art of capoeira was created by African slaves who worked at Portuguese sugarcane plantations in Brazil. It is believed to have developed from Engolo, a tradition of ritual combat practiced by various tribes in southern Angola. Slaves incorporated the dance and music in the martial art as a disguise so that their masters wouldn’t understand that they were honing their combat skills.

Unarmed runaway slaves used capoeira as a tool to survive in the wild and protect themselves from armed colonial agents on horseback tasked with finding and capturing fugitive slaves. After the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888, capoeira was banned throughout the country because it was used by some former slaves turned criminals. However, capoeiristas continued to practice the martial art in remote places.

Authorities began to relax the enforcement of the ban of capoeira in the 1920s, and some martial artists started to implement elements of capoeira into their practices. Capoeira gradually ceased to be associated with criminal activities over the next two decades and was legalized by 1940. By the 1970s, it became known and practiced outside Brazil thanks to Brazilian capoeira masters who traveled across the world and taught capoeira in other countries.

Modern capoeira is one of the most recognizable elements of Brazilian culture. Its cultural significance was formally recognized in 2014, when capoeira was added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Capoeira is an eclectic martial art that uses a variety of different techniques and is inseparable from music that accompanies it. Capoeira music sets the style, rhythm and energy of a capoeira game. Although capoeira is so versatile that it’s hard to classify, there are three accepted styles of capoeira: capoeira de Angola, capoeira regional, and a mixed style called capoeira contemporânea.

Capoeirista Day (Dia do Capoeirista), sometimes referred to as Capoeira Day, was established by the São Paulo state government in 1985 to recognize the cultural importance of capoeira and celebrate all capoeira practitioners. The holiday hasn’t been recognized on the national level, but it is celebrated by capoeira practitioners in other Brazilian states and even in other parts of the world.

Capoeirista Day events include presentations, demonstrations, workshops, and other events and activities designed to popularize capoeira and encourage people to try this amazing martial art. They are organized by capoeira schools, cultural centers, social projects, and other organizations that support and promote the martial art of capoeira.