The Carnival Of Brazil

This annual festival is held forty-six days before the Easter celebrations

. Because Christian doctrine requires its followers to abstain from eating meat or poultry as a means of penance and sacrifice, Brazilian Christians created the festival of carnival before the Lenten traditions.

Carnivale comes from the term carnelevare or "to remove meat". The original celebrations have been attributed to the pagan festival of Saturnalia. This practice was incorporated into Christianity and given a Latin American flavor resulting in the Carnival. Now, the celebrations are mega productions that can last twenty-four hours of wine, merrymaking and celebration before the piousness and solemnity of the Lenten season.

There are many ways that this celebration is done depending on your location in the country. In Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, samba schools organize huge parades to celebrate the carnival. Other cities such as Salvador, Porto Seguro and Recife organize groups that parade in the streets with the audience taking part in the celebrations. In Olindo, the Venetian Carnival influence is mixed with folklore to become a truly Brazilian celebration.

Another major aspect of Brazilian Carnivale celebrations is the music. Again, regional distinctions can be found with the Southeastern region having the samba enredo, samba de bloco, the samba de embalo and the machinha. In the northeast region of Brazil, the main music beats are the frevo, the maracatu, the samba-reggae and Axe music. Like the many aspects of the Carnivale, there is heavy influence of African-Brazilian culture depicted in the celebrations.

Aside from the formal Carnivale, there are also smaller off-season celebrations of the same genre called micaretas. The Bahian Carnival flavor pervades in this celebration with a huge truck, called the trio electrico, with a band and sound speakers that drives slowly in the streets. The crowds then follow the trio electrico singing, dancing and swaying to the music. There is an entrance to allow the audience to follow the truck and participate in the micareta.

The Carnival though is not always fun and merry making. In the early 1980's, Brazil was already garnering a reputation for criminality and violence affecting much of the tourists participating in the celebrations. This though has been reversed as social reforms lowered criminality and the higher presence of police officers during celebrations. Furthermore, investments into the country lessened poverty and the tourism industry showed that the guests and visitors are important to the country, not only for their expenditures but in the celebrations as well.

by: Bobby Castro

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