Carnival Roots

The origins of carnival date back to the ancient Greek spring festival in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine. The Romans adopted the celebration with Bacchanalia (feasts in honor of Bacchus, the Roman equivalent to Dionysus), and Saturnalia, where slaves and their masters would exchange clothes in a day of drunken revelry. Saturnalia was later modified by the Roman Catholic Church into a festival leading up Ash Wednesday. It quickly evolved into a massive celebration of indulgences - one last gasp of music, food, alcohol, and sex before Lent - before the 40 days of personal reflection, abstinence, and fasting until Easter (not exactly what the Church probably had in mind). 40 days of purging sins, preceded by a week filled with virtually every known sin. The word itself comes from Latin, "Carne Vale" or "Farewell to the Flesh".

Samba History and the birth of Brazilian Carnival!

Samba history and the history of Carnival are intertwined and can be traced back to Africa and the slave trading. The relationship can easily be seen by colorful costumes of feathers and the intense dance completing the Brazilian fantasy fest! To understand the phenomena one has to look at brazil history and the great country’s development from Portugal. The carnival was early established in Europe as the festival of the lent, or “carne vale” which means good bye to the flesh/meat. The fest also entered Brazil through Portugal influences as a violent carnival game called the entrudo. Through slave trading the African influences made it’s mark on Brazil culture, as it did with every country it occurred in. The beginning of samba history came with African religion and the gradual evolution of music and the carnival festival, until the two were inseparable in Rio de Janeiro! Politics, fashion, feelings, desire to go back to the roots, they are all factors in this complicated carnival game of how the samba came to be what it is today in Rio de Janeiro; world famous for the spectacular fantasy fest sweeping through the poor morros and all the way into the roaring, glowing Sambodrome! To capture the Samba history and the birth of Brazilian Carnival a collection of articles have been made covering the chronological events which led to today’s Carnival elation:

Samba History:

The mystical Origin of Samba & African influence
The origin of Samba Music comes from West Africa and Angola with the slave trading to Brazil in the 1600's. African religion mixed with contemporary Brazilian music evolved into today's carnival samba in Rio.

Samba History enters Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
As slavery ended, many refugees turned south and with them Samba history entered the famous capitol of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro. Cidade nova and Praca Onze, the gathering place for ex-slaves produced new, original forms of Brazilian Samba music and dance!

The Rise of Carnival! Samba Schools are born
In 1928 the first Samba Schools were born in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil! Today the Samba schools have a great part in making Rio the world's most famous and spectacular Samba City! The first samba school was more of a club, but it made a difference for the black community, and made Brazil reach back towards their African roots in 1930, with Vargas claiming power!

Brazil Carnival history in Rio de Janeiro
Brazil Carnival history in Rio de Janeiro is supposed to have strong roots back to Europe with the festival of lent often being represented as the origin of Carnival, leaving the influence of Africa forgotten. The Portuguese ‘conquestadores’ claiming Brazil, brought with them slave trading, increasing in the 17th, 18th and 19th century until 1888 when it was banned. By the early 19th century, over six million slaves had been brought to the Caribbean and South Africa. Enough to make their impact on brazil carnival culture and Rio de Janeiro Carnival history! The first kind of Carnaval to reach Brazil was the Entrudo. This was a violent form of the lent festival with people dressing up in big shirts like the black workers used throwing thin wax spheres filled with perfume. The whole thing developed to preparing bad fruits with bad smelling liquids, terrorizing streets and breaking into houses, until the police had to step in the year 1853.
By 1860, the today’s Brazil Rio Carnival history begins to form. The upper classes celebrated the carnival in expensive and private environments, turning to the streets dressed in masks and costumes later in the evening. Those who couldn’t afford the balls was given masks to participate in the streets carnival. The days of Entrudo was over. However, the influence of Africa may have an important role in the street carnival history. Carnival expresses a abstract kind of street theatre. The African style called for costumed bands, and for the merry-making focus to be outdoors, rather than indoors. Which is what we see with today's New World carnivals. The Egungun festival seen in Africa, during which every extended family honours its collective ancestors, all the members of an extended family lineage wear the same colours, thus constituting a "band," which is the defining feature of the carnival history of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro.