Throughout the colonial period the diversions that took place in Rio de Janeiro during the carnival did not differ from those present in other Brazilian cities.

A whole series of games together under the term Carnival could be found in the streets and houses in the town. In the late eighteenth century, this park consists of the mutual release of lemons smell (in the manor houses) or any other liquids or powders (the streets).

After the Independence of Brazil, the Carioca elite decides to get away from the past Lusitanian and improve ties with the new capitalist powers. The city and culture of Paris will be the parameters to guide the fashions and ways to be imported.

Balls

Carnival of the French capital is one of the elements of influence, making the revelry of Rio de Janeiro quickly submit masked dances Paris molds.

Initially promoted or encouraged by Dancing Societies that existed in the city (such as Constant Polka, for example) these balls would ultimately be outweighed by the public balls, as the famous ball at the Teatro San Gennaro promoted by Clara Delmastro, in 1846.

Rides

The great success of the balls would eventually encourage other forms of entertainment, such as walks or promenades along the lines of the then almost extinct Roman carnival. The idea to go to the dances in open carriages seduced the bourgeoisie, he saw, then, an opportunity to showcase their rich costumes and people to “civilize” the carnival feature ‘carnival’.

The Cariocas amazed watching these parades without, however, to avoid having to salute with your lemons smell the elegant masked. The tension arising from the carnival would clash with the elite sought increasingly organize their rides by assembling a large number of carriages and the strong presence of corporate policing the parades.

Societies Carnival

Gradually these promenades would eventually acquire a certain independence from the balls until, in 1855, a group of notable citizens who organize what became known as the first ride of a carnival company for a Brazilian city: the parade of the Congress of luminaries Carnavalescas .

The success of this event would open the door for the emergence of dozens of companies that carnival, in a few years now compete for the limited space of the city center during the days of carnival.

Carnival streets

However, the fabulous carnival proposed by the bourgeoisie does not reign alone on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Parallel to the movement to implement a civilized party, other park took shape in the city. The carnival, with its disorganized and spontaneous joy was not the only popular carnival fun. Many black groups of Congo (or Congo) and Cucumber took advantage of the relative generosity ruling to get police permission to perform. In addition, other groups, bringing the poor to free blacks and small traders Portuguese (later known as Zé Pereira), felt encouraged to stroll the streets.

The Carnival

The mixture of these different groups would eventually force a kind of dialogue between them. Soon the mutual influences are remarkable by adopting the popular carnival, fantasies and organizational characteristics of the bourgeois revelry. Companies carnival in turn, began to incorporate many of the rhythms and sounds typical of popular games.

The result of all this is that the streets of Rio de Janeiro would see emerge a variety of groups, representing all types of interinfluências possible. It is this multiplicity of forms carnival, that freedom of organizational groups that would give rise to an identity carnival. An identity forged in the streets, and tensions between dialogues.

The popular carnival

This form of classification would last until the 1930s, when the mayor / intervenor in Rio de Janeiro, Pedro Ernesto, Rio de Janeiro officially the party. Thereafter, the competitions sponsored by newspapers, newspaper articles published in the press and the writings of the early folklorists would eventually separate the popular games into arbitrary categories, each with a story and an own format, such as blocks, ranches, cords, Zé Pereira, Corsican and societies. Crowning this movement is published in the 1958 book History of Carnival, the researcher Eneida de Moraes establishing the founding text of revelry in Rio, and, by extension, Brazil.

Samba schools

In late 1920, Brazil sought to create an identity that differentiate it within the new world order established after the First World War. The concept of negritude stood world highlighting the cultural productions such as Black African Art and jazz. The carnival party and the new base rate of newly emerged black, samba, would be the basis for the formulation of a sense of Brazilianness. The appreciation of the samba and the blackness would end up increasing the interest of the intellectuals in the new “groups of samba” that appeared in the hills of Rio. These groups would be present “in the asphalt,” that is, away from the ghettos of the hills, being called samba schools.

Treated initially as a kind of curiosity “folk”, these groups were, little by little, capturing Rio society with its rhythm marked with the unexpected sound of his dark girls and the popular themes of his lyrics.

Maintained for decades as secondary elements of carnival revelry in Rio, the samba schools would gain prominence from the 1950s, with the incorporation of the middle class to parades, as a result of closer ties between schools and leftist intellectuals. From there they climbed the ladder of success to become the great national carnival event.

The carnival contemporary

Carnival of street blocks and strips

From the two weeks preceding the carnival, the streets of Rio de Janeiro, is adopted by a large number of blocks and bands that carry tens of thousands of revelers and make the city a large popular dance without strings and open to all who want to reach.

Carnival of balls and clubs

During the carnival dances are performed several clubs in the city, some more focused on the upper class, others to the lower classes. The city also makes popular dances, open to the public in certain traditional areas of the city, as the Municipal Theater and suburban neighborhoods as Madureira. It is also the famous Gala Gay ball, on Tuesday of Carnival, aimed at community GLS.

Tests of Samba Schools

Although started “officially” on Friday fat, the street carnival in Rio is already beginning in November when the samba schools in the city go to make so-called “technical test” in the Sambadrome. True shows the corner where the progress and pace are the main, these events have attracted the city’s population and surrounding areas to fill the stands, twists and sing with their schools. A true popular festival which takes more and more interest from tourists eager to attend and participate in a carnival essentially popular.