A sea of yellow and green washed over Brazil on Sunday as the country took to the streets - dancing, singing, shouting and drinking – after winning an unprecedented fifth World Cup soccer title.
Cars draped in the colors of South American country's flag filled Sao Paulo with the blare of their horns and dancing broke out in the streets of Rio de Janeiro to the shouts of "Penta Campeao," - Portuguese for "five time champion."
In Porto Seguro, the birthplace of Brazil where the Portuguese landed in 1500, thousands converged on the palm-lined streets under the blazing sun in a party that resembled the pre-Lenten Carnival celebrations.
"You've got to have a little beer to commemorate," said Maria Barbosa Andrade, 74, who celebrated World Cup wins in 1958, 1962, 1970 and 1994.
"Am I happy? I'm exploding with happiness," said Wilson Gomes as he bounced through the beach city to Afro-Brazilians rhythms. "There will be a party that will blow Porto Seguro apart."
For many Brazilians, the country's 2-0 win over Germany helped wipe away Brazil's 3-0 loss to the French at the last World Cup four years ago, a nightmarish defeat which triggered a fit of self doubt over their long-time dominance in the sport.
Indeed, after a string of embarrassing defeats against second-tier teams in the pre-Cup qualifiers, Brazilians were skeptical they could become five-time champs.
"It was spectacular. ... Brazil's heart beats stronger," said Cicero Batista, a street cleaner in Sao Paulo who, like millions of Brazilians as striker Ronaldo scored the two goals. Batista watched the game at a corner bakery over coffee and bread.
But beer quickly substituted for the normal breakfast fare on Sao Paulo's main strip, Avenida Paulista, where Brazilians of all income and ethnic groups congregated for the day-long festivities.
For many Brazilians, the win was also sweet relief from a financial crisis that has gripped the country the past month, pushing its currency, the real, to record lows against the U.S. dollar and unnerving investors ahead of October's presidential election race.
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso congratulated players and coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, known as "Big Phil."
"You prove that with talent, ability and team spirit our soccer continues to be the best in the world," he said in a statement.
Brazil, home of soccer legends like Pele and Garrincha, has excelled in the sport since teen-ager Charles Miller brought a soccer ball back from his studies in Britain a century ago.
Together with the Portuguese language and the Catholic religion, soccer has helped bind together the melting pot of 170 million Europeans, blacks, native Indians, Asians and Arabs living in a nation larger than the continental United States.
Native Pataxo Indians, swapping red tribal paint for the green and yellow of the Brazilian flag, gathered in the Coroa Vermelha reserve where they had performed a ritual Saturday to ask their god for a World Cup victory.
"We are descendants of the Indians, of the first Brazilians who were found here. Our country has fought and now we won," said Capim Bara, one of the Pataxo tribesman, wearing his feather headdress atop a bandanna emblazoned with the Brazilian flag.
Brazilians speculated that Cardoso would decree a public holiday on Monday, but even without an official day off, revelers might not be too productive.
"I don't think we'll be going to work tomorrow after so much partying," said Claudi Mary Sampaio, 27, on the streets of Porto Seguro.