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Carnival Rio
THE ORIGINS OF THE PARADE IN RIO
The origins of Brazil's street parades during Carnival come from the Portuguese
pre-lent tradition of "entrudo." During this time participants
threw mud, water and food at each in the streets. A lot of the time the
celebrations got somewhat out of hand and led to serious riots. This festival
was slowly developed a Brazilian style to a more loving and friendly excuse
to have some fun.
The first Carnival balls appeared in the 1840's and soon after parades with bands and horse drawn floats began to appear. However the fusion between the Portuguese street celebrations and the African traditions was not to begin until the early 1900's with the development of Samba. A mixture of Angolan samba, polka and African drumming, the sound that we all know so well today revolutionised carnival in Rio de Janeiro.
Since the abolition of slavery in 1888, the ex-slaves had been moving down to the hills of Rio de Janeiro establishing the famous shantytowns or "favelas" that now command Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. They developed their own style of parades using the elements from the traditional festivals to ward of the spirits from Africa.
The first Samba schools appeared in the 1920's formed by the people of the favela and have developed the riotous entrudo festivities into the largest party in the world. It is now a huge business and provides many valuable jobs throughout the year in preparation for the annual carnival parade at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro.