Rio Carnival 2015
Rio Carnival 2015
The 2015 Rio Carnival kicked off in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on February 13, 2015. The five-day-long festival is hailed as the largest event of its kind in the entire world, and is interpreted as an ‘act of farewell to the pleasures of flesh.’
Although Carnival is celebrated in towns and villages throughout Brazil, Rio de Janeiro has long been regarded as the Carnival capital of the world. The Rio Carnaval is not only the biggest Carnival, it is also a benchmark against which every other carnival is compared and one of the most interesting artistic events on the globe. Almost everyone has heard of Rio Carnaval. Foreign visitors to the carnival alone account for huge number of around 500,000 every year.
Rio Carnival is a wild 5-day celebration, 40 days before Easter.
It officially starts on Friday and finishes on Fat Tuesday with the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday after which one is supposed to abstain from all bodily pleasures. Carnival with all its excesses, celebrated as a profane event, could be interpreted an act of farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. It is usually in February, the hottest month in the Southern Hemisphere, when summer in Rio is at its peak.
Carnival is very important to the Brazilians, it sums up their way of thinking and way of life.
Almost all the music played during Rio Carnival is samba. It is a uniquely Brazilian music originating from Rio, a dance form that was invented by the poor Afro-Brazilians.
The word samba, meant to pray or invoke the spirits of the ancestors and the gods of the African Pantheon. As a noun, it could mean a complaint, a cry, or something like “the blues”.
Rio Carnival does not depend on any authority or sponsor to happen. Carnival in the streets is a living proof of this passion. It’s free, and everybody’s welcome to participate.
The Carnival is one of the biggest events in the World a destination everyone has to see and experience at least once in their lives.
