declared a brazilian cultural heritage in early 2013, the festival entails 11 days of masses, litanies, games, food, drink, music and dancing to commemorate pentecost, 50 days after easter - though some aspects have been altered over time, the basic principles of the festival of distribution of food to the poor and candy to children remain unchanged to this day.

preparations for the festivities begin a year in advance, ostensibly the day after the previous festival, and practically the entire community participates in the planning - arguably the most celebrated holiday in brazil is carnaval, and paraty is no exception to this.

the carnaval here has retained some of the more traditional european carnaval customs, such as king and pauper costumes, skulls and paper-mache heads, along with a very distinctive tradition of its own, the bloco de lama, or mud block party.