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Held prior to Lent each year, the festival is a great fun and an extravaganza of color and festivities to which many thousands of people flock each and every year. The make-up of the carnival is quite extraordinary, with luxury balls and galas being held across the city and many carnival festivities taking place in the Sambadrome in downtown Rio de Janeiro.
With influences from African dance and the roots of carnivals in Roman mythology, the mix of cultures on display at the Rio de Janeiro carnival is extraordinary and is certainly a sight to behold for everyone who is involved with it.
The Rio de Janeiro Carnival celebration dates back to 1723 when it started out as a pre-Lent festival – much like many carnivals around the world. Carnivals were initially intended as religious celebrations and contained offerings to Roman gods. Modern day carnivals, however, are far removed from their initial roots and have become vast celebrations of enjoyment for local people to embrace the rich mixture of cultures which influence each and every carnival worldwide.
 Rio de Janeiro Carnival Today, the Rio de Janeiro carnival is perhaps best known for its famous carnival parade, which first took place in the 1930s. Since samba dance is the essence of the Rio de Janerio carnival, the parade is also called samba parade. Samba comes from an Afro-Brazilian dance. Some steps and motions were added to the dance for samba parade of the carnival and became what is known as Brazilian samba dance which is not a dance of couples.
The carnival parade starts on the Sunday evening and goes through until the Monday morning, with the majority of the carnival celebration taking place in the Sambadrome in downtown Rio de Janeiro.
The main purpose and attraction of the Rio de Janeiro carnival procession is the participation of many people from various samba schools – groups of people who have come together to participate in the carnival celebration for their “team”. Each samba school selects a theme to portray at the samba parade and designs their
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It should be noted that samba schools are not traditional schools. Samba schools in Brazil are basically social and cultural groups that meet at regular intervals to learn and perform Brazilian samba dance, music and carnival costumes. One folklore says that the term ‘school’ originated from the time when the early sambistas used to rehearse near a teachers’ college.
Samba schools are a part of life of the people of Brazil. This is especially true for people who were born and brought up in Rio de Janeiro. Such gatherings take place so that members can rehearse the samba dance for the carnival parade in the Sambodrome . Each member of the samba schools are expected to participate in the Rio de Janeiro Carnival. It does not matter if he or she is a professional or a novice. Most of the performances are theme based with each samba school boasting of a master of ceremonies, flag bearer, bateria (drum section) and spectacular floats. The most popular samba schools usually perform on Sunday and Monday night whereas the others perform on Tuesday night.
 Samba School in Brazil Samba schools are the life of Rio de Janeiro. The name itself conjures up beautiful Brazilian women with swinging hips, dressed in mind boggling costumes. Full nudity is prohibited but often a glitter and body paint is used with minimal clothing. Anybody who has seen the Rio de Janeiro carnival admits that the effect is spectacular.
Characterized by singing and samba dance, these schools are fiercely competitive. In the city of Rio de Janeiro, one can see samba procession, where participants wear richly colorful and exotic carnival costumes. One should not get confused as most of the samba schools around Rio de Janeiro have the words Grêmio Recreativo e Escola de Samba (Fraternity Recreative and Samba School) before their names. In Sao Paulo, this becomes Grêmio Recreativo Cultural e Escola de Samba (Fraternity Recreative Cultural and Samba School). Some exceptions to these are
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Tags: samba carnival of Rio, Carnival in Brazil, brazil carnival photos women, Samba Schools in Brazil, rio, samba dance brazil
The Caribbean Islands carnival is a big feast for everyone as Caribbeans have a rich carnival culture with religious influences and African rhythms. With vibrant and colorful carnival costumes, floats, musical competitions, delicious food, and drinks the whole atmosphere turns into one big party scene. The carnival celebration is a great way to break the fast known as Lent. Once this period is over people get excited, soak into the party atmosphere, and enjoy the carnival. They forget connecting with daily stuff that they do and take a break to enjoy the carnival. The ‘Mardi Gras’ day is the day when Lent Catholics bid farewell to meat. Then this fast is broken during Ash Wednesday as the Carnival starts.
The carnivals are held in different seasons across the Caribbean. Some Islands prefer to hold the Carnival after the Ash Wednesday whereas other Islands prefer to hold it after Easter. A few Islands have the carnival during the summer season. However, for the people it hardly matters as to which season the carnival is held in, because they only like to enjoy and party hard during the carnival period. The main idea across the Caribbean islands is to have great fun during the carnival period.
 The Caribbean Islands Carnival The actual preparation process for the Carnival starts well in advance. At some places, the planning for next year’s carnival starts soon after that year’s carnival is over. For others the planning usually starts 6 months before the carnival period. The first step is to select the theme based on the culture of that Caribbean Island and then plan the carnival costumes, float, and music according to this theme. During the time of carnival in the Caribbean Islands events like King and Queen Contests, Parades, Music competition, and Concerts are held. There are prizes given out to the
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Tags: rio, carnival King and Queen, carnival costume, Caribbean, Caribbean New Year's Day, mardi gras day, Carnival costumes, Carnival Culture of Caribbean Islands, calypso monarch competitions
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