Rio de Janeiro Carnival Eva Koprivnik

The Brazilian Carnival, properly spelled Carnaval, is an annual festival in Brazil held four days before Ash Wednesday, the day of fasting and repentance that marks the beginning of Lent.

Rio Carnival Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is now considered one of the greatest shows on Earth. Rio de Janeiro is known as the cultural capital of Brazil and was the administrative capital from 1822 to 1960, when Federal Government moved to the new capital, Brasilia. The first festivals of Rio date back to 1723.

Parade The famous carnival parade has been going on since the 1930s. The parade starts Sunday evening and continues into early morning Monday of the celebration. In 1984 the parade finally found its permanent home, the Sambadrome ["sambódromo" in Portuguese].

The Sambadrome is a large structure that was built in the downtown area. In the off season, the buildings of the Sambadrome are used as classrooms for the local public schools.

Samba schools Samba schools The carnival parade is filled with people and floats from various samba schools. A samba school can either be an actual school or just a collaboration of local neighbors that want to attend carnival.

Samba schools include: Imperio Serrano Academicos do Salgueiro Unidos da Tijuca Beija-Flor de Nilopolis

Each school begins with the "comissão de frente", which is the first wing. The "comissão de frente" is made up of ten to fifteen people only. People have choreographic dances in fancy costumes that usually tell a short story. Following the "comissão de frente" is the first float of the samba school, called "abre-alas".

Important roles: porta-bandeira mestre-sala The porta-bandeira is a very important lady who is in charge of the samba school flag. Floatees, who are also important, are the people who populate the floats.

Street Carnival Street festivals are very common during carnival and are highly populated by the locals. One of the most well known bandas of Rio is Banda de Ipanema (is one of the gayest events of Carnival in Rio). Banda de Ipanema was first created in 1965 and is known as Rio’s most irreverent street band.

Music&dance Music&dance The most famous dance is the samba. Other dances include the lundu, the polka, and the maxixe. Music is another major aspect of all parts of carnival.

Instruments of Carnival Before the samba gained the percussive style, it was played with flutes and string instruments. There are several types of drums within the ensemble including the surdos, caixas, repiniques, and tamborim.

Samba parades:

THE END