Maceió (Portuguese pronunciation: [masejˈjɔ]), formerly sometimes Anglicised as Maceio, is the capital and the largest city of the coastal state of Alagoas, Brazil.

The name "Maceió" has origin in the term tupi maçayó or maçaio-k, that means "what it covers the swamp".

The Aurélio Dictionary says that the term "maceió" means a temporary and cyclic lagoon that is located at the edge of the sea at the mouth of a watercourse small enough to be interrupted by a silicate bar until the high tide opens the way temporarily cyclically related to the season, river flow, lunar seasons, etc.

The city is located between the Mundaú Lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean, with a tropical climate with average temperature of 25 °C (77 °F).

One substantial local industry is based on chemical products from brine pumped from deep wells on the outskirts of Maceió.

These coastal neighborhoods include coconut palm trees, playgrounds, squares, open-to-the-public football, volleyball, and basketball fields, residential buildings, bars, nightclubs, tourist-oriented shops, restaurants, banks, hotels, and gambling houses (slot machines and bingo only, since casino games are illegal in Brazil).

In September 2005, the new Zumbi dos Palmares International Airport, one of the most modern in Brazil, was inaugurated.

During these fifteen days, there are bonfires, fireworks, and folk dancing in the streets (step names are in French, which shows the mutual influences between court life and peasant culture in the 17th, 18th, and 19th-century Europe).

Like what happens on Midsummer and St John's Day in Europe, bonfires are a central part of these festivities in Brazil.

Its choreography and costumes with colored ribbons and beads reproduce the cathedral's façades on the monumental hats covered with mirrors.

It is always presented together with La Ursa (The Bear), Vaqueiro (Cowboy) and a percussion band whose rhythm captivates everyone that hears it.

Maceió is home to numerous beaches, the color of sea varying from emerald green to blue; the water is always clear.

The Maceió sea has natural pools and reefs a few meters off the coast, that can be accessed by boat or raft sailings.

The commercial and economic development of the Port of Jaraguá, next to the margins of the Mundaú lagoon, was responsible for the emergence of an important settlement that received the name of Maceió and later became the present capital of Alagoas.

During the Brazilian colonial period, the most important products exported from there port were sugar, tobacco, coconut and spices.