Carnivals in Rio de Janeiro - history, description and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

Every year in Brazil there is the brightest and most impressive holiday, covering the whole country - the carnival. It was originally a food festival and lasted until Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the period of Lent before Easter. The Brazilian Carnival in Rio draws hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the globe to the city, where they can enjoy the pulsing sounds of the samba as well as take part in the carnival procession.

History of Carnival

The word "carnival" comes from the Latin language, and according to some sources, from the Portuguese phrase "carnevale", which can be translated as "farewell to meat." It is this phrase that refers to carnival as a celebration before a period of abstinence from alcohol, meat and pleasures. Carnival celebrations in Rio begin the week before Ash Wednesday. In the Roman Catholic Church, this is the first day of Lent. On this day, in accordance with ancient custom, on the foreheadthe sign of the cross is applied to believers with consecrated ashes.

Portuguese settlers had their own traditions of celebrating before Lent - "Entrudo" (derived from the Portuguese carnival, a holiday that has been celebrated in Portugal since the 15th century). It was very noisy fun, accompanied by pouring water, sprinkling with chalk and flour. The noise interfered with the townspeople, and the celebration was forbidden by decree of the king. But he moved to the homes of the rich people of the city.

In 1840, Rio's very first carnival took place, and European polka and w altz dances took center stage. African slaves brought to Brazil by the Portuguese gave life to the first samba rhythms. As a result, the Brazilian Carnival combined a European festival with African rhythms, music and dance.

Samba is the heart of carnival

At the beginning of the 20th century, samba sounded at the carnival, considered traditional Brazilian music, which is the product of a mutual love for the music of former colonists and former slaves. Samba music in street parades contributed to the emergence of samba schools in Rio de Janeiro. In the early 1920s, the first samba schools were established in the city. Today pupils of these schools are in the heart of carnival celebrations. In the southeastern cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, huge organized parades are led by samba schools.

The name of the oldest and most famous samba school, founded in 1928, is Mangueira. This educational institution promises to presentan exciting show in Rio at the 2018 carnival in one of the Scala nightclubs. The best samba schools such as Salgueiro, Mocidade, GrandeRio and BeijaFlor usually follow the example of Mangueira.

Sambódromo Stadium

If in the 19th century the inhabitants of the Rio districts took part in carnival parades with groups of people led by dancing samba, accompanied by drummers and other musicians, since the middle of the 20th century, the carnival has become a competing arena for Samba schools. Street parades became more and more dynamic with the advent of samba schools, which subsequently led to the need to build a stadium. The spirit of competition required a powerful arena for the presentation of dances, and soon, in 1984, the Sambodromo (Sambadrome) was built. It is the product of the design work of renowned architect Oscar Niemeyer. The grandiose building, consisting of three floors, has a length of a little less than a kilometer and is designed for 70,000 spectators. Since then, the stadium has been constantly modified, embodying the new ideas of numerous immigrants.

King Momo

The grand celebration of the carnival begins with the handing over of the symbolic keys to the city to the "owner" of the holiday, the fattest man who was chosen from all applicants (weight no less than 110 kg). Four days lasts his power in the city. His duties include a permanent stay at the Sambadrome, attending balls and competitions, and there are more than two hundred of them. And one more duty of the "owner" of the carnival - he must dance all the time.

Sambadrome during the holidayturns into a world with fabulous pictures, including fire-breathing dragons, pirate ships, underwater kingdoms. Chinese wise men and Roman legionnaires, Neanderthals and even the head of the Gorgon Medusa floats by the stands of jubilant spectators in the solemn Sambo parade. For three nights, rows of platforms with half-naked mulattos dancing on them pass, float, pass in front of an enthusiastic audience.

Carnival Spirit

Basically, the origin of the Brazilian carnival is "pretending". Almost a week of carnival is boundless holidays. Only on these few days of the year is it "allowed" to pretend to be someone. The poor may wear expensive suits, the rich may mingle with the crowd of ordinary people. Most of the population dresses in colorful outfits and takes to the streets. By the way, in honor of the enchanting holiday, a tulip variety was named - "carnival de Rio", which, in terms of the diversity of the petals, is comparable to the outfits at carnival processions. The clothing options are truly endless!

Men can wear women's clothes, girls at the carnival in Rio de Janeiro are practically not dressed. Everything that can be called clothing is a set of sequins and feathers. Carnival is a legitimate opportunity to allow yourself to forget everyday problems and escape into a fantasy world.

Samba Schools

The Official Samba Parade is a carnival competition that brings together the best of the samba schools in Rio de Janeiro. What is a samba school? We can say that this is an association of people who practice samba throughout the year,honing the dance to perfection. Each school has from 3 to 5 thousand people. Most of them will participate in the procession and represent their school, and, of course, strive to be among the top six schools. It is these schools that will participate in the final part of the holiday.

In 1933, the first samba parade competitions took place. The purpose of the parade is to give samba schools the opportunity to showcase all their talents. They need to choose their theme for the carnival and write a song that perfectly reflects this theme. The school is represented by a flag bearer, a master of ceremonies and a group of drummers. The time of competitions for the "major league" is booked for Sunday and Monday.

There is also a "second league". The schools in this league put on a performance on Tuesday evening. The parades take place at the Sambadrome stadium in the central suburb of Santo Cristo. At the Rio Carnival 2018, which will take place from February 10 to 13, passionate samba dancers, in their fantastic and, as always, provocative costumes, will make everyone present join the celebration.

Samba Parade at Sambódromo

The parade at the Sambadrome is a demonstration of what the participants of one or another samba school have achieved during the months of preparation. This is a theatrical performance on a pre-selected topic. Colorful show: defile of samba schools, accompanied by music and singing. Each school has its own flag and color. Each school has its own fans who like to attend rehearsals throughout the year and "cheer" for their school at the carnival,supporting her during the performance no less recklessly than at a football match.

In 2017, more than 70 samba schools took part in the Carnival, which took place from February 25 to 28. The jury evaluates the performance of schools in many ways. This is the cohesion of the team, the disclosure of the topic, the correspondence of the choreography to this topic, and the ability to meet the time allotted for the performance (from 65 to 80 minutes). The prize for the winning samba school at the carnival is about 1 million US dollars. Something to fight for!

Street parades

Street parades in Brazilian cities are a common occurrence. They are arranged not only during the carnival festivities in Rio de Janeiro and other cities of Brazil, they start in November. Tourists can join dancing groups or parties. It is worth noting that you need to be careful. Parties are not only fun. Relatively safe festivities are usually in the South zone and the city center, where cariocas (the self-name of the inhabitants of Rio) walk. These merry fellows consider themselves the happiest people on the planet.

But the merit of the carnival is that during the fireworks of passions that rages at the carnival, all negativity and complexes are burned. People get a huge charge of vivacity and fun, and hence happiness!