Samba dancers wearing bodypaint, feathers, glitter- and not a lot
else – have taken to the streets of Sao Paulo for the opening of the
country’s wild carnival festivities. Dancers from local samba schools
put on a spectacular parade through the huge Sambadrome arena as up to
30,000 revellers looked on. Similar to Mardi Gras, the five-day-long
street party builds up to Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the
Christian season of Lent.
The carnival’s excesses are considered an “act of farewell to the
pleasures of the flesh,” before Lent, during which Christians are
supposed to abstain from bodily pleasures.
Carnival is celebrated in towns and villages throughout Brazil, but the festivities in Sao Paulo and capital Brasilia are the biggest – with around half a million foreign tourists flocking to the country every year.
Carnival is celebrated in towns and villages throughout Brazil, but the festivities in Sao Paulo and capital Brasilia are the biggest – with around half a million foreign tourists flocking to the country every year.
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