Brazilian carnival
Rhythm, participation, and costumes vary from one region of Brazil to another
. In the southeastern cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Vitória, huge organized parades are led by samba schools. Those official parades
are meant to be watched by the public, while minor parades ("blocos")
allowing public participation can be found in other cities. The northeastern
cities of Recife, Olinda, Salvador and Porto Seguro have organized groups parading through
streets, and public interacts directly with them. This carnival is also
influenced by African-Brazilian culture. It is a six-day party where
crowds follow the trios elétricos through the city streets, dancing and
singing. Also in northeast, Olinda carnival features unique
characteristics, heavily influenced by local folklore and cultural manifestations, such as Frevo and Maracatu.The Carnival of Brazil is an annual Brazilian festival held between the Friday afternoon (51 days before Easter) and Ash Wednesday at noon, which marks the beginning of Lent, the forty-day period before Easter. On certain days of Lent, Roman Catholics and some other Christians traditionally abstained from the consumption of meat and poultry, hence the term "carnival," from carnelevare, "to remove meat.
The typical genres of music of Brazilian carnival are, in Rio de Janeiro
(and Southeast Region in general): the samba-enredo, the samba de bloco, the
samba de embalo and the marchinha; in Pernambuco and Bahia (and Northeast Region in general) the main genres are: the frevo, the maracatu, the samba-reggae and Axé music.
Carnival is the most famous holiday in
Brazil and has become an event of huge proportions. Except for industrial production,
retail establishments such as malls, and carnival-related businesses, the
country unifies completely for almost a week and festivities are intense, day
and night, mainly in coastal cities. Rio
de Janeiro's carnival alone drew 4.9 million people in 2011, with 400,000 being
foreigners.Arguably, this cultural manifestation could be historically traced to the Portuguese Age of Discoveries when their caravels passed regularly through Madeira, a territory which already celebrated emphatically its carnival season, and where they were loaded with goods but also people and their ludic and cultural expresions.
Street carnivalAs the parade is taking place in the Sambadrome and the balls are being held in the Copacabana Palace and beach, many carnival participants are at other locations. Street festivals are very common during carnival and are highly populated by the locals.[2] Elegance and extravagance are usually left behind, but music and dancing are still extremely common. Anyone is allowed to participate in the street festivals. Bandas and blocos are very familiar with the street carnival especially because it takes nothing to join in on the fun except to jump in. One of the most well known bandas of Rio is Banda de Ipanema. Banda de Ipanema was first created in 1965 and is known as Rio’s most irreverent street band.
Incorporated into every aspect of the Rio carnival are dancing and music.
The most famous dance is carnival samba, a Brazilian dance with African
influences. The samba remains a popular dance not only in carnival but in the
ghettos outside of the main cities. These villages keep alive the historical
aspect of the dance without the influence of the western cultures.
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