RIO CARNIVAL * SONG'S FROM BRAZIL

           Rio        Carnival Parade                                                                                                             The costumes are extremely imaginative, colorful, elaborate and detailed. They are truly original, designed and made from scratch each year.      

Samba Schools History Carnival has been celebrated in Brazil and in Rio de Janeiro for centuries, but samba schools were only first inaugurated in Rio Carnival in the 1920s. At the end of the 19th century, immigrants from Bahia state brought with them the tradition of playing candomble and dancing a bahian dance called the samba. In the slums of downtown Rio, a place referred to as 'Little Africa', they established a number of religious houses devoted to religious ceremonies where they played and danced the early forms of However African religions were illegal in a dominantly Catholic Brazil. These roots of samba remained invisible to the white elite for a long time. The samba schools' parading structure originates from groups parading during Carnival in the 19th century. Even at this juncture they already had included; the Vanguard Commission, a chosen theme, floats, and the flag bearing couple, all of which are essential parts of today's samba sc...

Although Carnival (Carnaval in Portuguese) is celebrated in towns and villages throughout Brazil and other Catholic countries, Rio de Janeiro has long been regarded as the Carnival Capital of the World. The Rio Carnaval is not only the biggest Carnival, it as 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 the Rio Carnaval. Foreign visitors to it alone number around 500,000 every year. Rio Carnival is a wild 4 day celebration, 40 days before Easter. It officially starts on Saturday 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, can be considered an act of farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. It usually happens in February, the hottest month in the Southern Hemisphere, when the Rio summer is at its peak. There are...