october 12th  - feast of our lady of aparecida (nossa senhora aparecida) is a uniquely brazilian roman catholic celebration for the patron saint of brazil.

legend has it that in the early 1700s three fisherman were fishing on the paraíba river when they caught the headless statue of the virgin mary, dark in color.

as they held on to the small sculpture, they kept fishing and moved around the river until they happened upon the head in a completely different location, at which point, the nets were overflowing with fish.