Carnival
Carnival is an annual celebration held in various cities, particularly in Brazil, preceding Lent, which is a period of fasting and penitence in the Christian calendar. The festivities, often marked by vibrant parades, samba music, street parties, and elaborate costumes, culminate on Fat Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Historically, Carnival has roots in pre-Christian festivals such as the Roman Lupercalia and has evolved over time, incorporating local customs and traditions, particularly in the context of colonial Brazil.
In Brazil, Carnival serves as a national holiday and a major tourist attraction, drawing millions of visitors to cities like Rio de Janeiro, where samba schools play a pivotal role in organizing events and competitions. While Carnival retains elements of its religious origins, it has increasingly transformed into a celebration of fun and cultural expression, with diverse adaptations across different communities. The event also highlights the historical contributions of Afro-Brazilian culture, which have shaped the modern interpretations of Carnival. Today, global business interests play a significant role in the celebration, making it a colorful and economically impactful event that attracts participants from around the world.
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Carnival
Carnival is an annual national holiday of celebrations held in several cities around Brazil preceding the beginning of Lent. Other cities around the world with large Catholic populations hold multi-day celebrations. For example, New Orleans holds the weeklong celebration of Mardi Gras, which mirrors the Brazilian Carnival. Anglican- and Protestant-dominated cities celebrate the days before Lent but with less grand public exhibitions. Carnival comes to a close on Fat Tuesday preceding Ash Wednesday.
Catholics and other Christians observe the forty days of Lent beginning on Ash Wednesday running up to the holy day of Easter Sunday, approximately six weeks later. These are days of exiguous monasticism and penitential observances. The lively atmosphere of Carnival, beginning a week or more before Lent, stands in stark contrast to the days of Lent that follow. Celebrants dance, parade, imbibe alcohol, and eat meat and fatty foods to excess. Carnival is marked by daily parades with floats, loud and buoyant samba music, street parties, masks and costumes, and masked grand balls. In Brazil, Carnival de Brasil (Portuguese) is a national holiday and tourist attraction.
Background
Carnival is the first celebration of the year welcoming spring. Before the eighteenth century, all the old food stored over winter months had to be eaten before rotting in the warming weather; it gave medieval people the rational for feasting and drinking before fasting for Lent. The forty days of Lent before Easter Sunday are characterized by sacrifice through abstinence as a platform for introspection and penitential observances. In keeping with the spirit of sacrifice and abstinence of Lent, children might give up candy, and adults do not eat meat on Fridays or might try to quit smoking among the pleasures they forswear. The Latin term carne vale translates to "farewell to meat." Carnival is the proverbial feast before the fast.
Anthropologists trace some of the history of Carnival back to more ancient sources. One group of Catholic historians suggest Carnival has roots in the Roman celebration of Lupercalia, a holiday celebrated in February honoring a Roman god of fertility through feasting, drinking, and carnal behavior. Others attribute Carnival’s origins to later Germanic or Nordic tribes paying homage to the fertility goddess of Nerthus in thanks for extending daylight hours. Rather than to excise pre-Christian rites from folk cultures, priests and church leaders blended them into Christian traditions and celebrations, similar to Day of the Dead, Halloween, and the medieval pageant Corpus Christi.
Historical documents reference feasts and parades with horse-drawn carts filled with revelers celebrating in days before Lent as far back as 325. In the seventh century, Pope Gregory declared fasting to begin on Ash Wednesday and to bring Carnival celebrations to a close on Fat Tuesday. Following the Crusades in the 1000s and 1100s, anti-Semitism was institutionalized in Europe through the Carnival.
Following the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, Carnival celebrations were muted in countries such as Denmark and in certain Scandinavian countries, where Fastelavn is celebrated on the Sunday or Monday preceding Ash Wednesday.
In 1439 after England left the Catholic Church and instituted Anglicanism, Carnival was reduced in importance. Eventually it was replaced with a nationally recognized day called Pancake Tuesday. It is held on the day preceding Ash Wednesday. Pancake Day honors "fat eating" and gorging along with some other Carnival influences before Lent. The English ring a bell announcing Pancake Day, and finish it off with eggs and fat before fasting.
Carnival Today
Business interests in an age of globalization largely supplant the religious roots and meaning of Carnival and Mardis Gras. They are tourist destinations for fun, excess partying, and eating. Approximately 400,000 people visit Rio de Janeiro for Carnival from all around the world. In Sydney, a one-day parade called the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is held. In Spain, the government awards the honorary title of Festival of International Tourist Interest to those fiestas that are modeled upon Carnival and meet certain requirements, such as ongoing annual occurrence and access to accommodations for tourists.
Brazil is still the home of Carnival. The Portuguese colonized Brazil in the 1500s, introducing Carnival into the local culture. Amid endemic poverty, loss of self-identity, and the disruption of local customs under colonial oppression, Brazilians of African descent originated the samba in the early twentieth century. They adopted distinct rhythms and meters to dance, their foods, dress, and partying at the Carnival. Carnival gave the people an opportunity to pretend to be something or someone else, no longer tied to the Portuguese. It is a temporary escape into a fantasy world, even in modern times.
Carnival-related business is third only to industrial manufacturing and oil production in contributing to the gross domestic product. Carnival celebrations are spread across the country with each community adapting its own themes, music, parades, and styles. Samba schools are major sponsors of many floats and costume making. They spend nine months sewing and practicing dance moves before Carnival. Competitions take place in the Sambadrome stadium.
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