Brazilians as a whole can be quite superstitious. They have all kinds of traditions/superstitions related to Catholicism, native Brazilian culture/religions and African culture/religions imported via the slave trade. (N.B. most things we now refer to as 'Brazilian culture' originated in African culture, FYI).
I have seen a few interesting traditions/superstitions being carried out here. One of the most dramatic happened when I was in Rio. We went to the beach one morning and there were white flowers strewn all around, which appeared to have been washed in by the tide. Short of a tanker ship full of fresh flowers capsizing out at sea, we couldn't work out what the hell was going on. We then observed a few random middle-aged women walking up and down the beach selling white flowers to passers-by, who then walked up to the sea and threw them in. The amount of people throwing white flowers into the sea increased as the day wore on: there were streams of people walking towards Copacabana beach with a bunch of flowers in hand in the evening.
After some googling, we found out it all had to do with the Afro-Brazilian religions of Candomblé and Umbanda, created by the slaves. It has something to do with the goddess Yemanja, Queen of the Ocean. On February 2nd they give her offerings for good luck, healthy pregnancy, etc. Basically most people do it out of tradition/superstition. It was a very beautiful thing to watch happening. People of all ages and generations were taking part. I should have taken pictures.
Something not quite as religious is the superstition around guests leaving the home. When you leave a Brazilians home, you wait for them to open the front door for you. You DO NOT open it yourself. This is because of a superstition that states that if a guest lets themselves out of your front door, they won't return again. I sometimes wonder if they allow people they don't like to let themselves out on purpose so they don't have to see them anymore. I would, if I believed it were true.
I am constantly almost letting myself of people's homes. I usually get my hand on the door handle, freeze and withdraw sheepishly apologising "sorry, it's all yours". I'm not kidding, they NOTICE it if you open the door yourself. They give you a LOOK - it's a mix between horror and surprise.
Yet still after 5 months I haven't got the hang of it. Oh well.
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