Sport a deep tradition

Hey guys, this is so way off topic BUT I still want to see if I can learn some more of the Brazilian culture by sharing some of my own. We (Australians) share a lot closer relationship, culturally to England over the USA. This comes down to the types of sport we play, where America made up most of their own we stuck mainly to the sports popular in England. Anyway what I want to share is the great Christmas Tradition of the, Boxing day test match.
Boxing Day is the day after Christmas it is a public holiday as well but some businesess do open that were closed on Christmas. If you want to know more there is an article on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day
Well, now that we sort of know what boxing day is, we are on to the test match. Well for us boxing day is the start of a set of 3 games of cricket that go for 5 days each. Cricket in test form(there are a few different rule sets) is a long, slowly paced game steeped in more tradition than you can poke a stick at, one of the oldest games and one of the few that can claim to be played by and only for Royalty. Baseball clearly drew it's inspiration from this game. Most people who travel to see this game sit out in the sun all day with lots of sunblock and somtimes large 'mexican' hats to protect them from the sun and usually consume large amounts of beer. The game is the perfect time to relax in the summer sun and watch something that is only slightly more animated than waves rolling in on a beach. It's always been a time for me to relax during the days between Christmas and New years eve. It is also a really social event because test cricket is very slow which gives you plenty of time to discuss the game or anything that you think of.  It's always been a fond memory of mine because we rarely taste defeat but it has happened... or so I have heard... hahah
What I would like to know is does Brazil have anything like this? A specific sport event that coincides with a Holiday?
PS. Got a vid of Youtube of the 'highlights' of the first day of the test match.... if you're interested... I don't expect you to watch the whole thing, it's 10mins long! But you'll see a large bit of Aussie summer culture right here: