Carnival Rio de Janeiro

Carnival is the time of year that the world comes to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A huge celebration of epic proportion, Carnival is the remnants of Saturnalia an ancient pagan holiday that occured around Christmas. Christian leaders didn't want their followers to be lured away by the promiscuous acts of the Pagans during Saturnalia so they created a "Mass for Christ" or Christmas. Which ended this ancient festival of fun for many cultures. Most Latin countries adopted Christmas but moved the festival to forty days before Lent.
Carnival is latin for "farewell to meat" and is a celebration of gorging yourself on life's pleasures, before a long fast which used to exclude meat. Most conservative americans would view this as a Pagan ritual. Marti Gras (Fat Tuesday) which is America's only accepted Carnival is also frowned apon by staunch Christians.

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Rio's first masquerade carnival ball with portuguese polkas and waltzes was in 1840
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Carnival street parades started in 1850

The samba in Carnival, was first started in Rio 1917

Samba is a mixture of Angolan semba, European polka, African batuques, along with Cuban habanera and other carribean styles.

Escola de Samba (samba school) first appeared in 1928.

Samba came from the flood of newly freed black Brazilians from Bahia to the slums or favelas of Rio after the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888.

Copacabana Beach during Lent

Rio Carnival
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Carnival Dates:

2002 February 11 and 12
2003 March 3 and 4
2004 February 23 and 24
2005 February 7 and 8
2006 February 27 and 28
2007 February 19 and 20
2008 February 4 and 5
2009 February 23 and 24

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