Carnaval

Happy Ash Wednesday. My new roomate Beto commented that he spent the day at home, "purifying himself like a good Catholic". I call that nursing a hangover. I love Ash Wednesday - it's a nice way to cap off Carnaval with another holiday where you don't have to go to work. So smart, those catholics..

I had no idea when I arrived that Carnaval here is such a popular (as in, of the people) holiday. One tends to see the big parades of samba schools in the SamboDrome on tv in the US. Indeed, that is exists - and is amazing - but more amazing are the hundreds of block-party parades that bubble up during these four days in part of the city. There is a "bloco" (block party/parade) for everyone. There are neighborhood blocos, kid-friendly blocos, blocos for fans of afro-reggae or any other type of music, lesbian blocos, a bloco put on by the nuns, tranvestite blocos, gigantic blocos in the Centro of the city (which as far as I can tell are for people who like to feel like a sardine). The photos are from one in Ipanema, dancing until and after the sun went down...

The generic recipe for a bloco is such: take a bunch of happy people dressed in fabulous costumes (more creative than Halloween), then add a band (samba and marching bands are popular). Now march around in the streets playing music, following the band, drinking, jumping, and singing. Everyone here knows the words to the songs, because they've been singing them all their lives. Observe in this video of the Boitatá bloco (the parade starts around minute 1:00). Do this every day for 5 days (or more) starting around 9 am! This is serious commitment. I had no idea it was such a daytime holiday but am a big fan of the party all day schedule. It does a body good to have time to sleep, too.

Last thing - I did go to the Sambódromo to see the fancy pants parades of the samba schools. Most of the local cariocas do not go to such "touristic" things, but the ones who do are big fans of their selected samba school. If you've seen the Lion King, I can compare the costumes to that in their fantasticness. Each school parades for about an hour, with the song and dances they have choreographed for this year. Each school's parade includes some 10 or so floats, with several groups of costumed dancers in between each float. This goes on from about 10 pm until 6 am! I couldn't see any real coherance to the themes of the floats - one school had an Egyptian one followed closely by a German castle riding atop a giant wolf (somewhat Vegas-like, but better). I even saw the Taj Mahal!