Brazilians Have a Life-saving Reason for Applauding On Beaches—and It’s Spreading Across South America

Every day at the beach is deserving of a round of applause. However, if you happen to hear people start to clap while you’re soaking up the sun on the beaches of Brazil, know that it actually means something rather specific. 

“Something incredibly Brazilian is happening at this exact moment,” Nick Whincup, aka NicNoBrazil, shared in an Instagram Reel. “If you can hear, people are clapping at the beach, out of nowhere, for no reason. This confused the hell out of me when I first came here.” 

But as Whincup explained, it’s a “super Brazilian” thing that people do to help when a child gets separated from their parents. 

“The clapping indicates, as far as I’m aware, where the child is,” he explained. “For example, if the child is here, people in this area will clap. Then the parent can think, wait a minute, my child’s gone missing, where are they? Oh, I can hear the clapping, let’s go to the clapping.”

It was a topic of conversation that also took over Reddit this spring, with several people saying this is a common practice in their home country, too.

“In Uruguay, it’s common practice too. Working as a lifeguard, I would ask the people at the beach to do this when we found a child. Works 90% of the time.” Another commenter added, “I live in Argentina, and we do this too when a child goes missing at the beach! I wonder if this is a common practice in all of South America?” And one more confirmed it is indeed common, noting, “In Chile we do it as well.”

People also took to the comments of Whincup’s video to voice their support.

“Literally saw it work the other day at A Praia do Arpoador,” one person added. But it turns out, the Brazilians use it off the beaches as well.

“I’m Brazilian, I live abroad, and I went back to Carnival. A kid got lost in the small block, everyone got down and started clapping their hands,” a commenter explained, with several others citing similar examples. “I’ve never seen this before, and was so emotional when I saw it happen. I thought it was beautiful.” 

Whincup ended his video by noting, “It’s such a small thing, I’ve never seen this on any beach anywhere on the planet. It’s just another one of those little Brazilian things that is super, super cool.” And maybe it’s a tactic that we can all learn from and use around the globe, too.