A little look back to 2006 with memories of Carnival.
The Carnival celebration in Rio is arguably the greatest celebration in the world. I was expecting to witness debauchery like Mardi Gras, but on a grander scale. What I discovered was anything but that. There was certainly alcohol flowing freely – beer and caipirinhas were available every 4 feet – but in Rio, Carnival is about music, dancing, celebration and, above all, joy. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not about beads and throwing up on your shoes.
Some of the incredibly elaborate floats in the Samba parade
A few things I learned about the annual celebration:
1) You don’t have to be a spectator. One of the most unique and wonderful experiences of my life was joining one of the Samba schools and being IN the parade. Some smaller schools do not have enough members to make a good showing (they need between 3000 and 5000 participants) so they raise funds by selling spots to join in the extravaganza. There is nothing I’ve ever experienced that compares to the exhilaration of dancing through the Sambadrome to the cheers of 90,000 spectators. If you’re interested, check out:
http://www.rio-carnival.net/rio_carnival/rio_carnival_costumes.php
http://www.carnivalservice.com/rio-carnival-costumes.php
2) It IS a competitive sport. The Sambadrome is a 90,000 capacity stadium built along a one mile stretch of road, specifically for the annual event. The annual parade is a week of celebration, but on the two “Special Group nights” 6 groups per night perform in heated competition. Each group has a maximum of 75 minutes to complete their show or they are penalized by the 40 judges grading the performances.
3) Not all costumes require you to be nearly naked, but you DO have to be comfortable in your own skin. If Liberace and the Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz had a lovechild, that was me in my costume. But all feelings of insecurity are washed away when you’re dancing and singing with 5000 others and tens of thousands are showing their adoration.
4) Beer vendors are ingenious. While waiting for the parade to begin, we were inside a gigantic corral with 20 foot billboard-covered walls around us. Vendors climbed to the top of the outside walls and dropped coolers to our level with a rope. Throw a few reais into a basket (also on a rope), they haul up the cash and you take a beer.
Yes, I was in one of these costumes.
5) The community effort behind the Samba parade is enviable. A samba school’s planning starts in March and lasts nearly a year. Some of the poorest neighborhoods in Rio band together and work tirelessly on nights and weekends to create everything necessary to have a good performance for their area of the city. They choose the theme, the music is written, costumes are created, floats are built, and the designer puts together the choreography. Rehearsals begin in December and by Christmas, the sambas are recorded and released to record shops so the entire community can learn the songs and sing along during the parade.
6) Brazilians don’t sleep during Carnival. The parade begins around 9pm and with each group taking close to 90 minutes, it lasts until 4am or later each night. Then the party begins.
7) The Samba parade is taken more seriously than you can imagine. For a resident of Rio, it is second only to the World Cup in the passion it generates. After working for a year, the emotional investment and sense of community creates an intensity and fervor when the results are announced the following week. During the announcement in a Copacabana pub, the room was alternately cheering and sobbing throughout the afternoon. One of the indelible images I have of my time in Rio is that of a young women sobbing hysterically at a table, while her friends worked to comfort her.
Despite the disappointment that my group came in 7th out of 12, the joy and passion for life I experienced during Carnival was inspirational, unforgettable and one hell of a lot of fun.
Bom Carnaval!!
