When I was a kid, I never heard anything about Chinese New Year – I didn’t even know such a thing existed. Now that I’m an adult, I still hear nothing about Mongolian New Year, Ethiopian New Year or Mayan New Year; but Chinese New Year is big news. In 2011 CNN Money published an article under the headline “U.S. Companies Fear the Chinese New Year”. In 2015 the Boston Globe published an article entitled “Chinese New Year and its Effect on the World Economy”. Both articles cov

Before I moved to Brazil, when I thought of Carnaval I imagined that the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, with its incredible costumes, semi-nude samba dancers and competitive nature was what Carnaval is all about. Turns out there is a great deal more to it, and the Sambadrome parades are just one element of what is, without question, the world’s largest party. At the heart of Carnaval lie the “blocos”. Historically the term “bloco” has been used alongside other terms (such as