Feb 23
Carnival Rio de Janeiro. Rio’s lavish carnival is one of the world’s most famous. Scores of spectacular floats surrounded by thousands and thousands of dancers, singers, and drummers parade through the enormous Sambódromo Stadium dressed in elaborate costumes (or, quite often, with absolutely no costume.) It is an epic event televised around the world. The origin of Brazil’s carnival goes back to a Portuguese pre-lent festivity called “entrudo”, a chaotic event where participants threw mud, water, and food at each other in a street event that often led to riots (an event quite similar to today’s Andean carnival – see Venezuelan section of this booklet). Rio’s first masquerade carnival ball (set to polkas and waltzes) was in 1840.
