As traveling becomes popular, there are many people who want to experience something special on a trip. They want to look into a country, know about it, and experience as much as they can. To satisfy those desires, I recommend you participate in festivals in local areas that show you the native culture. The Rio de Janeiro Carnival in Brazil, Venice Carnival in Italy, and Nice Carnival in France are known as top carnivals.
The Rio Carnival in Brazil is full of passion and the samba dance. It originated from the Portuguese festival before Lent in Brazil and the traditional drum dances of slaves. It started in 1930 as a street festival. At that time, schools for the samba were founded. The samba schools participate in the festival and compete with each other at the parade. The samba has become the most important thing in the Rio Carnival.
The Venice Carnival, one of the greatest festivals in Italy, started in 1268. For 13 days until Lent, people do street performances, parade with fancy costumes, and join in a masked ball around the Piazza San Marco. Masks, the core of the Venice Carnival, are worn by people to hide their class and they enjoy the carnival without class distinction.
The Nice Carnival started in 1878 and followed the tradition of the Venice Carnival. The carnival consists of flower parades, a cavalcade, fancy parades, ticker-tape parades, and a flour battle. The flower parade is the one you should not miss if you go to the carnival. There are floats at the parade which are decorated with fancy flowers, pieces of shiny steel, and mannequins. On each float, beautiful girls with costumes throw about 100,000 flowers to the crowd. The biggest feature of the Nice Carnival is the “King,” which is the theme of the carnival. The Nice Carnival is held with a different concept of “King” every year. Last year, the theme was “King of the Mediterranean” and this year it was “King of Sport.”
The events started as religious events and now they are known as great festivals where many people can join and have fun. If you travel to other countries, why don’t you join in the festivals? You can experience the customs the people in local areas have and understand the way they live and think.
