Brazilian Carnival
The Carnival of Brazil is an annual festival held the Friday afternoon before Ash Wednesday at noon, which marks the beginning of Lent, the forty-day period before Easter. During Lent, Roman Catholics and some other Christians traditionally abstain from the consumption of meat and poultry, hence the term "carnival", from carnelevare, "to remove meat."
Carnival is the most popular 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 6 million people in 2018, with 1.5 million being travelers from inside and outside Brazil. Rio's carnival is the largest single carnival parade in the world according to Guinness World Records. Meanwhile, the carnival of São Paulo is the largest street carnival celebration by number of participants.
Historically its origins can be traced to the Portuguese Age of Discoveries when their caravels passed regularly through Madeira island, a territory which already celebrated emphatically its carnival season, and where they were loaded with goods but also people and their ludic and cultural expressions.
Characteristics
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 allowing public participation can be found in those as well as other cities, like Belo Horizonte, also in the southeastern region. The northeastern cities of Recife, Olinda, Salvador, and Porto Seguro have organized groups parading through streets, and public interacts directly with them. 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 typical genres of music of Brazilian carnival are, in the Southeast Region in general, mostly cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo: the samba-enredo, the samba de bloco, the samba de embalo and the marchinha; and in the Northeast Region including Pernambuco : frevo and maracatu, and Bahia : samba-reggae, pagode and the main genre axé music. These rhythms were mainly developed by Afro-Brazilians and Pardos, incorporating and adapting many cultural influences, from the percussion beats of Africa to the military fanfares of Europe and Iberian music in the use of instruments like pandeiro and cavaquinho.
Brazilian carnival in essence is a synthesis of European, Native American, and Afro-Brazilian cultural influences, each group has played an important role in the development of the structure and aesthetic of the Brazilian carnival of today. For instance, the main rhythms used in carnival celebrations were developed by Afro-Brazilians and make use of European instruments like the cavaquinho and pandeiro to create melodies and arrangements. Also the costumes in the Brazilian carnival borrow concepts from the clothing of the Indigenous peoples of South America, in the use of feathers and scantily clad clothing. Religious cultural references are also common in Brazilian carnival, specially those related to Catholicism and Afro Candomblé practices.
Disruptions
The Carnival was first suspended in 1912, following the death of the Baron of Rio Branco, at the time Brazilian Minister of External Relations. The mayor of Rio reportedly postponed all licenses for the Carnival associations, but despite this many residents still partied in the streets anyway. The Carnival went on as scheduled despite World War I and World War II, besides during Brazil's military dictatorship, despite strict regulations.The first disruption to the carnival in 108 years took place in late September 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, when the 2021 festival was cancelled. The next festival was initially scheduled from 26 February – 2 March 2022, depending on the evolution of the epidemiological situation in the country, but was also ultimately cancelled. The carnival celebrations finally returned on 19 February 2023 after two years of hiatus, but floods and landslides caused some festivities to be cancelled.
By region
Rio de Janeiro
In the late 18th century, the "cordões" combined with the "dança do coco" were introduced in Rio de Janeiro. These were pageant groups that paraded through city avenues performing on instruments and dancing. Today they are known as Carnaval blocos, consisting of a group of people who dress in costumes or special T-shirts with themes and/or logos. Blocos are generally associated with particular neighbourhoods; they include both a percussion or music group and an entourage of revelers. They eventually became the "fathers" of what everyone today knows as the famous and internationally renowned samba-schools in Brazil. Samba-schools are the cultural epicenter of the Brazilian carnival, in terms of the "parading style". The first registered samba-school was called "Deixa-falar", but disappeared later and the first official samba-school contest happened in 1929, with only three groups, and "Oswaldo Cruz" group won the competition, with a samba written by Heitor dos Prazeres. GRES Estação Primeira de Mangueira Samba-School, represented by Cartola, and Estácio de Sá samba School, represented by Ismael Silva, were the other 2 contestants. Eventually, "Oswaldo Cruz" became Portela Samba School, the greatest winner of Rio's Carnival with 22 Titles. Although many Brazilians tend now to favor other forms of national music culture to that of Rio's samba schools, the carnival of Rio de Janeiro remains the national festival par excellence, and the samba of Rio de Janeiro continues to be an agent of national unification.Carnaval blocos, also known as Blocos de Rua occur in nearly every neighborhood throughout the city and metropolitan areas, but the most famous are the ones in Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon, Lagoa, Jardim Botânico, and in downtown Rio. Organizers often compose their own music themes that are added to the performance and singing of classic "marchinhas" and samba popular songs. "Cordão do bola preta", that goes through the heart of Rio's historical center, and "Suvaco do Cristo", near the Botanical Garden, are some of the most famous groups. Monobloco has become so famous that it plays all year round at parties and small concerts.
The formalized samba schools are very small groups of performers, financed by respected organizations, who work year-round in preparation for Carnival. Samba Schools perform in the Sambadrome, which runs four entire nights and is overseen by LIESA. They are part of an official competition, divided into seven divisions, in which a single school is declared the winner, according to ten judging categories that include costume, flow, theme, and band music quality and performance. Some samba schools also hold street parties in their neighborhoods, through which they parade along with their followers.
All performers at the Sambadrome have to wear a costume. Some honored members of the school or community may receive one for free, but normally, most will have to pay for their own. Tourists can have the same experience on the "Commercial Area" of some Samba Schools but need to buy their own costume from the school, or through an agent, either of which can be quite costly.
Bahia
There are several major differences between Carnival in the state of Bahia in Northeastern Brazil and Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. The musical styles are different at each carnival; in Bahia there are many rhythms, including samba, samba reggae, axé, etc., while in Rio there is the multitude of samba styles: the "samba-enredo", the "samba de bloco", the "samba de embalo", the "samba funk", as well as the famous "marchinhas" played by the "bandas" in the streets.By the 1970s, four main types of carnival groups developed in Bahia: Afoxês, Trios Elétricos, "Amerindian" groups, and Blocos Afros. Afoxês use the rhythms of the African inspired religion, Candomblé. They also worship the gods of Candomblé, called orixás. An Electric Trio is characterized by a truck equipped with giant speakers and a platform where musicians play songs of local genres such as axé. People follow the trucks singing and dancing. The "Amerindian" groups were inspired by Western movies from the United States. The groups dress up as Native Americans and take on Native American names. Blocos Afros, or Afro groups, were influenced by the Black Pride Movement in the United States, independence movements in Africa, and reggae music that denounced racism and oppression. The groups inspired a renewed pride in African heritage.
Today, Bahia's carnival consists mostly of Trios Elétricos, but there are still Blocos Afros and Afoxês. Every year, about half a million tourists are attracted to Salvador. It is also possible to watch everything from the Camarotes spread out along the way, offering more comfort to the visitors.
Pernambuco
The northeast state of Pernambuco has unique Carnivals in its present capital Recife and in its colonial capital Olinda. Their main rhythms are the frevo and the maracatu. ''Galo da Madrugada is the biggest carnival parade in the world, considering the number of participants, according The Guinness Book of World Records. It means "dawn's rooster" and parades, as the name suggests, in the morning only. Frevo is Pernambucan-style dance with acrobatic-like movements, as it is fast and electrifying, often using an open umbrella and frequent legs and arms movements.Unlike Salvador and Rio, the festivities in Recife, Olinda and Itamaraca do not include group competitions. Instead, groups dance and play instruments side by side. Troças and maracatus'', mostly of African influence, begin one week before Carnival and end a week later.