Rio Carnival
The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is a festival held every year before Lent; it is considered the biggest celebration of Carnival in the world, with two million people per day on the streets. The first Carnival festival in Rio occurred in 1723.
The typical Rio Carnival parade is filled with revelers, floats, and adornments from numerous samba schools which are located in Rio. A samba school is composed of a collaboration of local neighbours that want to attend the carnival together, with some kind of regional, geographical and common background.
There is a special order that every school has to follow with their parade entries. Each school begins with the "comissão de frente", that is the group of people from the school that appear first. Made of ten to fifteen people, the comissão de frente introduces the school and sets the mood and style of their presentation. These people have choreographed dances in elaborate costumes that usually tell a short story. Following the "comissão de frente" is the first float of the samba school, called "abre-alas". These are followed by the Mestre-sala and Porta-Bandeira, with one to four pairs, one active and three reserve, to lead the dancers, which include the old guard veterans and the "ala das baianas", with the drum line battery at the rear and sometimes a brass section and guitars. This brass section was included in the early 20th century as part of a more diverse musical ensemble which began to be offered at this time.
History
The origins of the Rio Carnival celebration dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries. Carnival was brought to Brazil by Portuguese colonizers between the 16th and 17th centuries, manifesting itself initially through the 'Entrudo', a popular festival where public games and lighthearted mockery would run wild in the streets. Over time, the festival acquired other ways of manifesting itself, such as in the use of masks and costumes. O Moleque by Lima Barreto, depicts an emergence of costume which was originally used in Carnival, tracing back to the European cultural roots. The costumes are symbolic of political and cultural themes of the time, which are then integrated into Carnival. The emergence of carnival societies created by the monarch elite also contributed to the popularization of the party among the poor.In 1840, the very first Rio masquerade took place, and polka and waltz took center stage. Later in the beginning of the 20th century the Samba and Batucada rhythms classically associated with Rio Carnival were introduced by Afro-Brazilians and Pardos, by adapting different cultural inputs to produce a new musical genre. During this period, Carnival assumed its position as the biggest popular festival in Brazil.
In the 1920s and 1930s in Rio, Samba schools were beginning to become popular as a way for blocos to increase their legitimacy and avert police oppression. Blacks at the time were often oppressed by the police for any street Carnival activities due to the city's attempt to become a European-style capital at this time.
There was no carnival in 1915–18 or 1940–45. Once more it was canceled with strict warnings against clandestine celebrations in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil and was postponed in 2022 for similar reasons. It returned in 2023.
Samba school parade
The pre-existing traditions of the 'Entrudos' and other popular festivities such as the 'ranches' and 'Cordão carnavalesco' that dated from the Empire would eventually be combined into carnival blocks by the 1920s, and evolve into their ultimate form - the Rio samba schools.Estácio de Sá, together with Portela and Estação Primeira de Mangueira paraded for the first time in the city in 1929. All three were former carnival blocks which transformed into schools with professional staffing and city support. In 1930, seven schools were already active in the city. With the works of in Avenida Presidente Vargas, the parade moved there, and from 1942 to 1945 the parade was held in São Januário. From 1952 temporary stands for the public were annually assembled, and in 1961 paid tickets made their debut to take advantage of the rising international and national interest and the increasing tourist arrivals. In 1974, due to the works of the subway, the parade was held on Avenida Presidente Antônio Carlos, from where it was also broadcast for the first time in color television. In 1978, the parade was transferred to the Marquês de Sapucaí Avenue, where it remains up to this day. In 1983, the then governor Leonel Brizola commissioned the architect Oscar Niemeyer the project of a permanent local stadium for the parades in that same area, because until then the bleachers had continued to be temporary, and only assembled and disassembled for the event.
With the increase in the number of schools taking part, which made the parade longer and tiring for the public, in 1984 the parade was separated into two dates and categories: Friday evening into Saturday morning for the lower-level schools; and Sunday evening into Monday morning for the major schools, including the more recognizable ones. That year, a "super-champion" school was also announced following the parade of the champions that took place the following Saturday, which by that time were awarded for the best performances of the past nights of competition. Since this practice was never again repeated, Mangueira remains the only samba school to ever be awarded with the title and dignity of "super-champion" of the annual event. Portela is the samba school that has the largest number of championships with 22.
The schools of the Special Group under LIESA parade over two days, while the A Series schools parade on Friday and Saturday under LIERJ, which also has the B Series, which parades on Fat Tuesday. Both organizations were under the AESCRJ banner before it lost organizing rights, thus also providing for the establishment of new organizations like LIESB and Samba é Nosso for the lower level divisions. The Gold Division champion school which advances directly as a participant in the Special Group for the next year's Carnival parades last on Carnival Monday while the Special Group champion parades once more on the Saturday after Ash Wednesday.
As of 2018, LIESB handed over the management of the E series and its schools to ACAS, which now operates it as a rookie level organization for samba schools, in 2020 the C Series fell under a new organization, LIVRES, with LIESB handling the divisions above and below it.
Music
Many songs and musicians play during the carnival in Rio to celebrate the roots of Rios culture. Music is a big part of the celebration and multiple artists and musicians come together to celebrate. The music played ranges from Orchestra throughout pop songs with Brazilian beats. The Orchestra Voadora has played multiple times at carnival, and they continue to do so with many musicians like Voadoras trumpet player Daniel Paiva. Pre-samba rhythms like maxixe, polka, and lundu were important to the development of samba. Carnival music in Rio has evolved as Samba became the main thing gaining popularity with both the elite and the working class by the 1910’sThere has been a revival of street carnival traditions through brass bands, also known as Blocos De Rua, playing alternative and international music styles in the 21st century. Commercialization of samba school is often challenged by bands reviving more grassroots, participatory music forms. Dozens of new street bands sprang up in the early 2000’s. Many centered-on street bands instead of the traditional samba-school bateria. Band groups with trombones, trumpets, sousaphones and remodeled band horns. These groups reclaimed public spaces having whole neighborhoods into open air dance floors. Revivalists openly took in styles like Jazz, Funk, soul, Afrobeat, and even electronic dance music. This global mix both honors samba’s synthetic roots and pushes carnival music toward new things.
The Rio Carnaval has had a lot of cultural importances and global appeal. Each samba school parade revolves around a specially made samba enredo. This is music that can celebrate Afro-Brazilian heritage or to recall historical events. Through the lyrics, dancing, and floats, the carnival music becomes something for collective memory and political commentary changing each parade into a special drama of Brazilian heritage. The Rio Carnival by it being only a year round community anchor. Beyond the four day event, samba schools work as social and cultural places in their neighborhoods. This is shown by weekly rehearsals and youth music workshops keeping the rhythm alive all year round, adopting intergenerational bonds.
The Rio de Janeiro's city hall had a community project to boost the cities culture. This project has helped attract tourists to come and celebrate its history and as well as Rios carnival. They have actively organized international exhibitions to promote the music and culture. The exhibitions are designed to show the diversity and culture of Rios carnival and uses the music as central element to attract global attention and more tourists. The music is also promoted through magazines and education allowing for younger people to understand the cultural and historical significance and can help connect to the rest of the world.