Caxirola

The caxirola (pronounced something like ka-she-'roll-ah) is a small percussion instrument with a shape and size akin to a hand grenade. Coloured, unsurprisingly, in green and yellow, it is made of recycled plastic, a deliberate move in line with Brazil's attempts to provide an eco-friendly world cup. The instrument contains synthetic pellets, and when shaken gives a rattling sound which is said to be not dissimilar to that made by a traditional South American 'rain stick'. Brazilian promoters claim that the caxirola has been carefully designed to produce a sound which is considerably less grating and annoying than the trumpet-like blast of the vuvuzela, which caused so much controversy in the 2010 tournament.

The instrument was based on the caxixi (pronounced ka-'shee-shee) a traditional South-American percussion instrument which consists of a small, sealed, flat-bottomed basket filled with seeds or other small pellets. Variations in sound from a caxixi can be made by changing the angle at which the instrument is shaken – if the seeds hit the sides of the basket, the sound is softer, but if they hit the rigid, flat bottom, a louder, sharper sound is made.