Let's go to the Сarnaval!

The Brazilian carnaval is an annual festival of music, dancing and extravagant costumes. While the costumes are flashy and glamourous, there is tradition set in carnivals origin hundreds of years ago with the followers of the Catholic religion. It started with a wild costume competition right before the first day of lent in Italy. The competition spread to catholic countries in Europe and the celebration was then taken to colonies in the Americas and the Caribbean Islands.

Filled with unique customs, the Brazilian Carnaval has adopted many of the rituals from the Portuguese and African culture. Those have gradually brought new rhythms, music, and dancing, transforming the carnival into the massive party it is known for these days. It gained popularity as participants in the festival started taking their costumes to whole new levels, with more beads, more feathers, more music, and more of everything! The bigger, the better!

The main part of the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro is the parades with the samba schools. A typical parade will include floats, party-goers and decorations from the samba schools in Rio. Samba has become the signature music of Carnival, to the point in which the competition between samba schools is almost equal to the rivalry between top sports teams!

However, it's important to know that the Carnival in Rio is not just the Carnival parade, as the whole city is full of street parties called “Blocos”, providing an additional fun layer to the festivities!

The Carnaval is meant to bring joy and allow everyone to come to the streets and party together, and can be seen as a temporary and lovely escape into a fantasy world. Will you be joining the next Carnval parade?