There is a run on mouthwash in Salvador, where kissing as many people as possible has become as traditional a Carnival pastime as watching the fierce competition between samba schools in Rio de Janeiro.

ECONOMIST: The government will be less abstemious than it claims

At first a major component of regional popular culture among Brazilians of African descent, the Samba de Roda was eventually taken by migrants to Rio de Janeiro, where it influenced the evolution of the urban samba that became a symbol of Brazilian national identity in the twentieth century.

UNESCO: Culture