The Carnival of Brazil is the country’s most popular holiday. The annual festival is held for five days leading up to Ash Wednesday at noon, marking the beginning of Lent, the forty-day period before Easter. During Lent, Roman Catholics and some other Christians traditionally abstained from the consumption of meat and poultry. Hence the term "carnival," from “carnelevare,” which means "to remove meat.”
The festival is largely influenced by African-Brazilian culture. Though, the first pre-Lent carnivals happened in Italy. Carnival came from the word Carne Vale which translates to “Goodbye to Meat.” Since then, the term carnival was used to signal the start of a 40-day abstinence period known as Lent. The carnivals of Italy were simple costumed festivals accompanied by merrymaking and music. The practice of the carnivals first spread to Spain, France, and other European countries and then it reached the Americas and spread into Portugal and Brazil.
In Brazil, the European tradition collided with the country’s African influence to form what’s been deemed the greatest show on earth.
RioCarnival.org says, “In Brazil, places like Praca Onze and Cidade Nova are considered the heart of Samba dance and music. According to Carnival history, back in the 1600s slave trading was practiced in South America.
The slaves that came to Brazil brought with them their culture and love for music. As time went by, slaves who originated from Angola and West Africa started to mingle with the locals of Brazil and shared with them their love for Samba. Since then Samba has become an integral part of the Brazilian Carnival.”
Samba-enredo is one of the primary styles of samba you’ll hear at Carnival. It’s performed by a samba school specifically for the festivities.
"Samba-enredo" in Portuguese translates to “a samba-song,” which is thematically bonded to the selected special theme (Enredo) of its samba school, which narrates the story in lyrical form. Each samba school performs one song in the Carnaval parade. A new song must be written each year for each school on Brazilian topics. Among other things, the Carnaval parade is a samba competition with judges, who rank the new sambas according to their perceived merit.
Bring the kaleidoscopic rhythms of Brazilian Carnival to your tracks.
