My focus for this cultural post is carnival or “carnaval” in Brazil. More specifically I tried to learn as much as I could about the origin, history and evolution of the event in Brazil. Additionally, I researched what the current plans are for hosting carnival this year under the conditions of COVID and how the celebration is being altered or modified.
One of the first things I learned is that Brazil is not the only country to celebrate carnival in such an animated and large manner. Places like Venice, Italy and Nice, France also celebrate in such fashion. I also discovered that the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, Louisiana is a form of carnival. More importantly I had no clue that the two (or any of the aforementioned celebrations) were in any way commemorating Lent and the commencement of Ash Wednesday since I am not familiar with any religious customs. This made reading about the tradition in Brazil really interesting because of my limited background knowledge.
In Brazil, Carnaval originated with an event called "entrudo", which was brought over by the Portuguese conquistadors. The event was a form of a game where people threw water, flour, eggs, and paint at each other during the days leading up to Ash Wednesday. I mentioned this aspect of the origin of carnival to my language partner and she hadn’t heard of it before and instead told me that afro-brazilian customs, culture and traditions contributed to the development of the event. A research article by Reginaldo Prandi, a Brazilian anthropologist who works at University of Sao Paulo, mentioned the event of “entrudo” by the Portuguese as the basic foundation of carnival but also highlights the importance of african culture to the evolution of the event. For one, during the entrudo enslaved Africans entertained themselves to the sound of drums and rhythms brought from Africa, which would eventually be mixed with Portuguese musical genres. This mixture would be the origin of the “marchinha de carnaval” and the samba, among many other musical rhythms that are a staple to Brazilian carnival. The creation of this type of music and dance then led to the establishment of “escolas de samba” or samba schools in which different congregations of cities practice and organize their dance routine, music playing and floats for the carnival. These dance communities in cities now are critical to the celebration, as they often require year-round preparation and heavily involve large parts of the community.
In terms of celebrations and plans for this year in Brazil, most major cities are currently planning to host the event again after a one year hiatus in 2020 due to COVID. Most cities have outlined that they plan to have little to no restrictions in terms of social distancing or masks.. In some of the interviews and comments for news programming, some Brazilians call for no carnival to be hosted as COVID has not been resolved and the event is considered one of the largest parties in the world. Others fully support the return of carnaval as they state it is a cultural staple and that regardless of the governmental decision people will celebrate at large.
As a whole it was great to learn about the origin of carnival and its evolution across time. Having a discussion about the perception of the event and its history with my language partner was also helpful, as she has a more personable and open perspective about Brazil and answered/clarified any questions I had throughout the process.
Comments
I had no idea that Carnival had its origins in Portugal. Although Portugal colonized Brazil, I have always seen this event as a symbol of black resistance in my country. I also studied it in one of my classes in 2020. While the Carnival in New Orleans is mainly for white and rich people, the Carnival in Brazil, in special the “escolas de samba," is ruled by black people who were able to get out of poverty by this event and form of art. To me, by saying that Entrudo, a completely different event, is the beginning of Carnival is an attempt to, once again, take out the protagonism from black people.